A Meeting of Two Hope's
by kingxana0
Summary: Chiaki Nanami typically finds herself in the same place during every lunch period, playing her games and waiting for a friend she hasn't seen in a long time. However when someone new arrives and interrupts her routine, what changes will arise from it?
1. It's a Public Bench, After All

The ever depressing sound of a game over screen played out from a small handheld game currently in the possession of the Ultimate Gamer, Chiaki Nanami. This was unusual for a number of reason, besides the fact that almost any game was simply fodder for the young woman. This game in particular had been one she had not only beaten but fully managed to complete, getting every hidden unlockable weapon and ability and all of the secret endings, even the one that required someone to beat the game in an almost impossible time frame, one that was basically pixel perfect for each encounter. And yet there she was, looking at the Game Over screen after having her character shot down by a basic enemy. flyer.

The girl gave a small sigh as she looked down at the continue screen, knowing that the secret ending would be impossible if she ever used one, and so simply flicked the game off and then on again to reset the score. In truth it wasn't that the game had become more difficult for the young woman, but simply that her hearts wasn't quite in the pursuit of victory at the moment.

It wasn't that Chiaki had much of a reason to be sad, in her own mind at least. She had friends that cared for her deeply, a supply of games, and the kind of renown that some people hunted after their entire lives. In fact she had never ever imagined being so blessed as to have a life like this. When she had been younger people tended to migrate away from her for being weird. Girls didn't want to play games and boys didn't want to be beaten by a girl at games. So she had gotten use to being alone, it was so much easier then trying and failing to make friends.

But for this very reason the young woman had never learned how to deal with what happened when a friend left. Sure she kept coming back to the same spot, hoping despite knowing it was probably pointless that her friend would come back to play games with her again.

In her darker moments the young woman wondered if it was something she had said to him, something that she hadn't meant to be mean that had pushed him away from her. Every conversation they had played in her mind, but her lack of people skills made it impossible to tell if a comment had been offensive or not.

Of course she had gone to her friends, tried to get their opinions on the matter. Most had been understanding, offering advice in their own unique ways. Some of the girls teased that she had her heart broken by a crush, and upon hearing that the boys wanted to track him down and knock some sense into him. It had taken awhile to get them to calm down after that, but it had taken her mind off her lost friend.

The idea that she had a crush on Hinata hadn't occurred to her, but upon reflection of her feelings she couldn't exactly say that it wasn't true. Being around him had been different from being around other people, and playing games with him was fun in a way that was different from playing with her classmates.

She had talked to her teacher about the matter, but her advice had been rather unhelpful. Apparently her teacher was experienced with a few things, but relationships and dating advice were far beyond her range of skills.

With a sigh the Ultimate Gamer returned to her handheld but couldn't seem to find the energy to actually start the game, even pressing the start button seemed like too much effort. With a sigh the girl collapsed on her side, laying on the bench and looking out at nothing in particular.

However before she could sink into any deep thoughts of depression a sudden shout of frustration pulled her back to reality.

"Oh come on, how does it jump every time I throw a ball at it!" a young man she didn't recognize with a phone held in front of him glared angrily at the device, flicking the screen only to let out another sound of distress. "Come on you dumb thing, just let me catch you." another flick and a loud chirp from the device signaled failure. "That was..." the young man sank to his knees in defeat. "That was my last ball..."

Chiaki blinked and pulled herself up to a sitting position, looking at the young man with a hint of confusion on her face. At first glance she had almost thought the boy was Hinata, but at second glance the two were obviously different. Still she was curious why a boy she had never seen before would come to this place during the short lunch period between classes.

Eventually the boy pulled himself up, brushing the dirt from his pants and noticing Chiaki for the first time. "Oh uh...heh sorry about that," a small blush came over the boys cheeks, embarrassed from the scene he had just made. "I didn't disturb you did I?"

The gamer gave a shake of her head, quietly observing the person in front of her. He didn't exactly have the odd look that many Ultimate students had, in fact if she had been forced to describe him she might have said something like 'he was a perfectly average guy'. And that made him odd in and of itself. People who attended Hope's Peak, even those who were only members of the reserve group, tended to have large personalities and massive ego's. They flaunted themselves either because talent was a cornerstone of their lives or they hoped that something about them would catch talent scouts eye.

Despite the mystery of the situation Chiaki simply brushed it past her and brought her game back up, deciding it was time to get back to it.

"No way!" the young man stepped forward and looked at the device with an awe inspired face. "That's a Joyboy X Gold right?"

"Oh...yes it is." her surprise was obvious by her tone. It was rare to find anyone who even remember the old Joyboy, much less knew about the special tournament only model that had been distributed to players at the companies tenth anniversary showdown.

The smile on his face only grew and he laughed gently. "Man that's awesome, my sister and I used to play all the time, but neither of us were ever good enough to go and compete. I bet it must have been a blast!"

His words struck a cord in Chiaki, as her mind drifted back to that competition, back when she was still a tiny kid. Playing against other people, being challenged, seeing people cheer. But the bad parts were there too, people calling her a cheat, saying others went easy on her, calling her a filthy otaku. Those words had hurt more then the praise had felt nice, and so she wrapped herself in armor and kept other people away to protect herself. "Parts of it," she replied, caught between wanting to start a conversation and getting caught in her own head.

The inner battle didn't escape the young man in front of her, who frowned for a moment. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

She blinked in surprise at the question. It was a public bench, so there wasn't really a reason that he wouldn't be allowed to sit down. But asking permission gave her the choice to deny him, to end the interaction without hurt feelings and without having to try and come up with an excuse. She looked up from her game for a moment, opened her mouth and said. "You can, if you want." she blinked in confusion at her own words, but none the less slid a bit to the side to give the young man some room to sit.

He gave a nod and opened a small puzzle game on his phone, playing it with a look of concentration of his face. Seeing that he was occupying himself Chiaki went back to her own game, starting fresh and blasting down a few of the enemies. It was almost automatic at this point, leaving her room for some reflection on the situation she currently found herself in. At first the idea of getting rid of him had sounded appealing, but as she reflected on the situation she found that the idea of trying to send him away, of going back to playing games by herself, made her sad. Part of her felt bad, as if she had just asked him to stay in order to fill the spot that Hinata had left. Even with her own hopeless social skills she knew that trying to do something like that wasn't healthy.

She glanced over toward him for a moment, as if just by looking at him she would understand the reason he had asked to sit down. There didn't seem to be any ill intent behind the question, after all he wasn't trying to lessen the distance between them, and wasn't saying blatantly perverted things like some of the more questionable members of her class. "You should clear out the three blue blocks on the side, you will be set up for an ultimate combo afterward." she said after having caught a casual glance of his phone.

"Really?" he did as she instructed and the score on his game went wild. "That's the highest score I ever got before!" he smiled brightly toward the girl. "Thank you, I thought I was caught with only small line ups."

She gave a nod and refocused on her own game, narrowly avoiding an enemy ships fire.

The young man put the phone away for a moment and turned toward her. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

She gave a shake of her head, trying to remain focused on her game.

"How come you are sitting out here all by yourself during lunch?" his question was rather direct, but was laced with concern.

She blinked in surprise and winced as her ship was shot down once again. Chiaki didn't know how to answer the question in an honest way, at least not without explaining the whole situation. Maybe she could have gotten away with saying that she just wanted to play games by herself without having a crowd around, but she had offered to let him take a seat next to her, so she couldn't without contradicting herself. Eventually she stumbled upon the most simple explanation she could. "I am waiting for a friend, but he hasn't shown up in awhile."

"How long is...awhile?" the boy questioned gently.

"A...a few months." she admitted, shocking herself. She hadn't really told anyone about Hinata. Of course there was her teacher who already knew about their friendship from having seen their interactions. But she had never told anyone else. "He promised we would play games again someday, but he never showed up again."

"You've been waiting for him for all that time?"

She gave a nod of her head, fully expecting to be called pathetic for holding onto a hope that was so clearly impossible.

The young man closed his eyes for a moment before giving a nod of his head. "You know everyone in my class is usually pretty busy during their lunch breaks, honestly its like everyone gets so wrapped up in things that they forget about each other until some group activity comes up," he gave her an embarrassed grin. "This seems like a really nice spot, so until your friend shows back up do you mind if I spend my breaks out here?"

Chiaki wasn't quite sure what to say in response to a question like that. It didn't seem like he was taking pity on her, or trying to impose himself onto her life. "I don't mind, its a public bench after all."

The bells chimed to bring an end to the lunch period, and the young man stood up with a grin. "Then I guess I will see you tomorrow, okay?"

Chiaki gave a small nod and watched as the other began to take a few steps away. "What is your name?" she suddenly found herself asking.

The boy turned around with a bit of surprise before giving a small bow to her. "Makoto Naegi, Class 78, what about yourself?"

"My name is Chiaki Nanami." she replied, finding a small smile on her lips at the dramatics of his introduction. It was such an average and yet overly formal way to introduce oneself, somehow it seemed fitting.

"Then I will see you tomorrow Nanami!" the boy turned and began to jog toward his school building.

Chiaki simply stood for a moment, before turning and walking back to her own building. Makoto Naegi, she committed the name to memory.

"I wonder what kind of games he likes."

* * *

 **So this is designed to either be a oneshot style fic, or could possibly become more depending on interests. I have an entire alternate timeline in store for those who are interested in seeing it play out. If you want to see more please leave a review (best way to let me know), favorite, and follow the story.**

 **Thank you all for reading.**


	2. Bento Boxes and Other Mysteries

The longest wait in Chiaki's life had once upon a time been the countdown to the new Magic Quest game, which was touted as being an RPG with near endless hours of game play and a story on such an epic scale that it would blow away even the most seasoned game veterans. She remembered each day leading up to the release being longer then the last, and of course she remembered waiting in a massive line with people camped out for days. She remembered challenging people to gaming contests in order to jump ahead in line, finally reaching a good spot. She remembered getting the game, already signed by the lead director.

The game of course ended up being over hyped and filled to the brim with glitches, but that wasn't quite the point. That long wait felt like nothing compared to sitting on the bench and wondering if Naegi would actually arrive like he had promised. It was already ten minutes into the lunch period, which of course wasn't saying much since they were given nearly a full hour of time to enjoy their meals. This was a special allowance the Academy had made, due to a great number of Ultimate students having strange eating habits.

Ten minutes of course wasn't a massive amount of time, any number of factors could lead to someone being ten minutes behind. Maybe he had run into a friend, or found someone who tripped and needed help up. Heck he could have tripped himself and sprained his leg. But the human mind goes to the worst possibility first before working backwards to something more calm and even minded. And with her current history of friends made by this certain bench she had begun to expect that the young man with the kind smile and bright attitude wouldn't be showing up.

She had already made her peace with it when the minute timer clicked over to eleven minutes on her gaming device, distracting her from the flurry of blows delivered by an A.I. controlled enemy on the fighting game she was playing. Of course seeing as she was playing the bottom tier character this would normally be an easy thing to do. Not so much when the Ultimate Gamer was controlling said character. A small sigh escaped her lips as she prepared to reset the game and burn through the rest of the meal period by taking out her sadness on the variety of strange characters within the game. However before she could properly ready herself a voice cut through the air.

"Nanami, hey there sorry i'm late!" Makoto Naegi waved toward her with an easygoing smile, holding a plastic bag with the brand name of a close by convenience store on it.

For a moment the young woman could only look at Makoto with confusion as the worst case scenario in her mind came to a halt. He was here, which wouldn't make any sense if he wasn't going to show up. She blinked back something that felt strangely warm and unpleasant from her eyes before giving a small nod of her head toward him. Words weren't coming easily for her right now, so she decided to simply remain quiet and see if he would pick up the conversation.

Thankfully for her Makoto had already picked up that she was more of a quiet type, and sat down without worry. "Sorry I was a bit late, I noticed yesterday that you didn't have anything to eat and the local store was having a sale on pre-made bento, so I figured 'hey why not' you know?" he pulled one out for him and offered her the other.

The girl looked at the box and felt her confusion only grow more, staring at it as if the box filled with food were an alien object being handed to her by a short grey creature with only three fingers. Chiaki was no stranger to receiving food, after all she was in a class with the Ultimate Chef, so having food offered to her wasn't an event that was rare. But for some reason getting food from Makoto, the same guy who had been listed in her mind as never showing up not a full minute ago, was causing her brain to misfire in confusion.

The hesitation didn't pass Makoto's notice, and a small frown came over his face. "Oh do you not like bento boxes?"

Did she not like bento boxes? Chiaki felt as if her brain were caught in a loop where it would take anything the young man said and run it through as if searching for some hidden meaning behind it. Of course she enjoyed most of the things inside of the average bento, and even the things she didn't directly enjoy tended to be a simple side product. Not to mention it was easier to open one that was premade while in the middle of a raid or tournament. So if she were to answer the question it would be yes, she did like bento, yet despite knowing the answer she couldn't get her mouth to properly verbalize a single word. Instead she simply gave a nod and put her Joyboy into her pocket before taking the box and opening it, looking into the food as if she would find an answer to lifes infinite mysteries within.

To his credit Makoto rolled with the strange behavior as well as one could expect him to. He opened his own and cracked the pair of chopsticks, which sadly didn't go straight down the middle, but as cheap chopsticks are want to do ended up leaving a significant chunk from one of them stuck on the other. "Itadakimasu!" he happily announced before starting to eat.

"Thank you!" Chiaki suddenly said, the tempo of her voice surprising even her. More confusing was she couldn't catch her own meaning behind saying it. Was she saying thank you for the meal? For the company? For something else completely different? "...um...itadakimasu." she said in a small voice suddenly intent on filling her mouth with so much food that there wouldn't be a chance for it to go on its own.

The two ate in relative silence, enjoying the meal until they had both had their fill, putting the boxes back into the bag to be disposed of at a later time. "So Nanami, what would you like to do with the rest of the lunch period?" Makoto asked in his own good natured way.

Chiaki reached into her school bag and pulled out her golden Joyboy X, along with the usual grey model, that looked only a little worse for wear given its age as third generation handheld device. "I was thinking...we could play games together?"

Makoto's face lit up and he nodded, putting his hand forward to accept the normal grey device, but instead had the golden version pushed into his hands. "Nanami?" he asked in a confused tone.

"Which kinds of games did you play back then?" she asked, not having a second thought about the situation. Games at the very least was an activity that she would always feel comfortable with.

Makoto didn't want to offend her by saying anything more about the game, so he simply decided to roll with it for the moment. "Hm, I remember we played a lot of games against each other, when we weren't just playing by ourselves. So I guess fighting games, racing games, and collectible mon type games. My family isn't very wealthy, so we could only have so many things to play you know?"

She gave a nod and reached into her bag, pulling out two copies of an old fighting game and offered one to him. Since the Joyboy games still replied on batteries for their internal structure there was always an increased chance that one would go inactive, so she made sure her collection had two of any older generation game. "Then should we start with this one?"

Makoto smiled at the title of the game and gave a thumbs up. "Yeah, just remember I won't be going easy on you, not even a little!" the way he spoke was instilled with such confidence that it gave Chiaki a smile.

"Then I guess I won't hold back either, okay?" she replied.

Makoto let out a small laugh. "Well since your a tournament level player maybe hold back on me a little?" She gave him a small glare that implied there would be no mercy for him, no matter what. "Or uh...you know what, just do your best."

And so the two of them began to play against each other, happily ignoring the rest of the world to focus on the game. Makoto actually managed to be a bit surprising, pushing Chiaki to actually have to use the skills that made her an Ultimate. Of course he never won, but occasionally he could drop her character to about half health, and there wasn't a single match that she managed to land a perfect against her.

She was so happy she wanted to jump for joy and proclaim that this was the best day ever.

So often either people underestimated her and would be destroyed utterly by a barrage of attacks, or would see how great she was at a game and give up trying to actually beat her, leading to an easy win. Even her own classmates, who she cared about deeply, didn't believe they could actually beat her in a game. And yet Makoto took every loss like a learning opportunity, never falling into depression even as he lost for the tenth time. He would smile at the game, say that she did great, and get ready for the next match. He was in the moment and enjoying himself, and that let him stand against her in a way that most others wouldn't have had the chance for.

And maybe it was her utter joy in that moment that caused her to say the next thing.

"I guess I win again, right Hinata?" the words slipped past her lips before she could even think of them, having become an automatic response when she had been sitting here with Hinata and playing games. But saying his name at that moment made her feel bad for some reason. "I um...I mean Naegi, that was a good game."

Makoto blinked at her before resting the handheld on his lap. "Hinata...that is the name of the friend you have been waiting for right?"

She gave a small nod, looking away to hide a blush that had come to her cheeks. Why did she have to be so dumb, the two of them had been having a lot of fun but suddenly calling him by another guys name was sure to make things really awkward. She wanted to pound her head against a wall until the part that was supposed to know how to interact with people would start working again.

There was silence between the two of them for an extended period before Makoto suddenly slapped his forehead. "I can't believe I didn't think of that yesterday!" he offered her a grin. "If he has been missing for that long then I know of someone who could probably find him for you."

"Find him?"

"Yeah one of my classmates is the Ultimate Detective, if you put a needle in a haystack she would reach in and pull it out on the first try," his voice held quite a bit of pride for his classmate. "Plus since she solved all of the missing pets cases in the city I bet she would love to take up a new case. You just need to bribe her with sweets and she will take the case."

"She would?" Chiaki had always hoped Hinata would come back, or at least that she would get some news of him from another source. But regardless of that hope she had accepted in the darker parts of her heart that the odds of him coming back were close to zero. But now, if there was some chance of finding him and asking why he didn't come back.

"Yeah, I can ask her to come with me tomorrow and..." Makoto didn't get to finish his train of thought as Chiaki suddenly threw her arms around him in a tight hug. The blush that came across his face was noticeable by any standards.

"Thank you, thank you so much Makoto!" the idea of seeing the first gaming friend she had made at the school again, of being able to talk to him again. That idea made her happier then she could have imagined.

His blush only increased as she used his first name, something he was only used to having a few of his classmates do, and never in such a way like she had just now. "D-don't worry about it, what are friends for right?"

She broke the hug and used the sleeve of her jacket to brush off a few happy tears that had begun to form. "Thats right...I think." in truth she didn't have enough experience with needing favors from friends to know what exactly friends were for.

"No reason to sound so unsure." the school bell chimed, bringing an end to the lunch period. "Ah man, its already been an hour?" Makoto stood up and offered her back the golden Joyboy X, only for her to wave her hand in refusal.

"You need a bit more practice," she pulled out a small box and offered it to him. "That way when we play games again we can have more fun."

"But...isn't this a special prize?" he didn't know exactly how to feel about taking something so unique from her.

She gave a shake of her head and a smile. "It is, but I will see you tomorrow, so its not like it will be gone for long."

He only hesitated for a moment longer before putting the device in the box and then into his coats pocket. "Right, and then when Kyoko finds your friend the three of us will all play games together, I might not be able to beat you yet, but I bet I could fair a bit better against someone else."

She simply smiled in response and stood up, brushing herself off. "Tomorrow then Naegi?"

"Definitely!" Makoto turned around and started to walk off, but stopped after a few steps. "Hey um...Nanami?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think from now on...if it wouldn't be too weird...that you could call me Makoto?" he turned to look at her, an embarrassed look on his face. "I don't know why, but hearing you use my first name made me really happy."

She blinked but gave him a nod. "Of course, but if I am going to do that then...you should call me Chiaki, okay Makoto?"

"Chiaki," he gave her a bright smile and turned around, walking away from the bench and off toward his class.

"Do I like it?" Chiaki asked herself, looking down toward the discarded bento box bag. "I think... I do."

* * *

 **So by popular demand here is the second chapter of this happy little experiment. Next chapters highlights will include a reaction from both classes about these little meet ups, Kyoko's investigation, and of course more cute nerds. Please leave a review if you are interested in seeing more of this, favorite to show the love, and follow for more cute chapters.**

 **P.S. Do these dorks have a ship name? This might be one of the rarest rarepairs I have ever written for.**


	3. What Detectives and Fools Have in Common

"So anybody else notice that Naegi is all smiles and rainbows lately?" Mondo asked no one in particular in the room, looking toward the class rep, who was taking the moment between class to glare at a gold tinted gaming device.

"Dude, since when is Naegi not?" Leon was leaning back in his chair, feet rested on top of his desk, sending a smug look toward Kiyotaka to see if he could manage to provoke the rule obsessed 'Ultimate Moral Compass' with his arrogant behavior.

Mondo held back a snort and nodded to the other delinquent. "Okay fair play, but I mean more so then usual."

"You know what I think?" Yasuhiro put his arms around the two and grinned at them. "I think our young Naegi might finally have made himself a man."

Leon's eyes went wide. "No way, that pipsqueak couldn't score with a chick!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that Kuwata~" Sayaka glanced back toward the Ultimate Luck. "Some girls fall for the nice guy pretty easily." a soft smile came over her face as she looked back toward her oldest friend. "Surprisingly easy."

"Tch, please an inchworm like him wouldn't stand a chance as the hero of a romance novel, even bargain bins wouldn't accept something like that." Toko scoffed at the very idea, despite having a few new ideas spring to mind for a 'nice guy protagonist' series.

"Actually the average person template is rather popular in the realm of dating sims, in fact you could say Naegi's attitude and general demeanor give him a much greater chance with any member of the fairer sex." Hifumi looked up from his sketches to contribute to the conversation.

"See I'm telling you, our young man has managed to reach the next step on the path to adulthood," Yasuhiro gave a knowing smirk. "But which of the lovely ladies in this class could possibly be the one to finally make the leap with him?" he turned his gaze to Byakuya. "What do you think Byaki?"

"Did I say you were allowed to speak to me, you peasant?" Byakuya flipped a page in the book he was only half reading. "Besides even such information existed do you believe I have time to look into the mating habits of sheep?"

The assembled students grinned and pointed toward a small jar on the desk next to the Ultimate Heir, who grumbled before putting a handful of money into it. The jar had been the idea of Makoto, to help some of the students who had more...difficultly interacting with others without insulting them. Mondo had a swear jar, Kiyotaka had one whenever he got to intense about school policy, Celestia for insults, and so on, covering a range of bad behavior for each student. Some had fewer then others.

"Hm, it does appear that we may be able to afford another class trip soon," Celestia observed while looking at the various jars.

Aoi smiled brightly and began to shake in her seat. "Heck yeah, that means we get to go to the water park again right?"

Sakura put a hand on her best friends shoulder and gave a small shake of her head. "Asahina dear, we rotate out where we go each time, choosing two times in a row would be much too greedy."

The Ultimate Swimmer pouted at the interjection of reality into her hopes, but quickly bounced back with a smile. "Well however chooses next might want to go to a water park, or maybe a doughnut factor, the kind where they walk you through and show you how they make one. And then they give you free samples!" Aoi's mouth was already watering at the thought.

The other students didn't have the heart to inform her there wasn't a chance of that happening until it was her turn.

"B-back to the conversation about Naegi..." Chihiro began.

"Must we?" Byakuya asked in a rather annoyed tone.

"Hey don't go interrupting Fujisaki you four eyed..." Mondo looked at the swear jar and a vein swelled on his forehead. "Jerk." he settled on that, not having the cash to pay for the actual insult he wanted to lob at the heir.

Chihiro gave Mondo a warm smile and continued. "If Naegi was dating any of the girls in the class we would know, and I am pretty sure if he was dating any of the girls outside of class he would have probably mentioned something right?"

Sakura gave a nod of her head. "It does seem unlike him to keep a secret like that, Makoto tends to be rather open about most things."

Kiyotaka gave a proud smile. "Indeed! Besides any student who can hold the role of a class president would of course know that public displays of affection such as hand holding and the like are strictly forbidden during class hours."

Mondo gave a small laugh. "That ain't proving nothing, if he was getting all lovey dovey he would just be doing it after school right?"

Those thoughtful words caused the various students to pause in their discussion and look back at the Ultimate Lucky Student with suspicious looks on their faces.

However their attention was suddenly diverted away by the entry of Kyoko, who walked straight over to Makoto and put a hand on his shoulder. "Shall we go?" she asked in her normal flat tone.

"Hm?" he looked up at her and offered a smile. "Oh right, yeah." he put the game into his coat pocket and the two of them walked out of the room, side by side the entire way.

The rest of the class sat in silent shock at the sight.

"See, I told you guys," Yasuhiro crossed his arms and gave a nod. "Our young man has grown into a man."

The class turned and looked at the Ultimate Clairvoyant, before in unison they said. "Shut up Hagakure."

* * *

"Thanks again for doing this Kyoko," Makoto smiled toward his classmate as the two walked through the near empty school halls. Most students had made a beeline to grab a meal from the always overflowing cafeteria, so it was usually a pretty safe bet that there wouldn't be foot traffic. "My friend is worried sick over this, and I honestly think they would feel a ton better if they could get some information on their friend, you know?"

Kyoko simply gave a nod in reply toward his thanks, focusing on the details that she already knew. A new friend Makoto had made outside of the class had a informally scheduled meeting with another party to socialize during break periods. A few months ago said party had mysterious stopped appearing despite having promised to come the next day at the scheduled time. After this absence there had been no sign, no note, and not attempt to get in contact with said friend after their disappearance. Of course it could fall to a number of simple to explain factors, but something about the case had felt different to Kyoko. She wouldn't go so far as to call it a 'sixth sense', but her family had long been known to get certain hunches about interesting mysteries even if they hid in mundane shells. Thus she had asked for a week and a half to clear out her backlog of cases, in actuality just a few missing pets and a few requests from some students to put to rest rumors, so that she could focus her full energy on the case before her.

Of course even if she hadn't gotten the feeling she wouldn't have denied the request. If it were anyone else maybe, but Makoto was different. He had been the first of her classmates to ever reach out to her beyond needing her help, he was the kind of person who it was hard to wall oneself off from even if one was an expert on keeping people away. Slowly but surly his honest smile and easy to read face had drawn her into the classroom life that Hope's Peak offered, and the circle of people she could call friends had increased. She owed him a debt of gratitude that she couldn't express with words, or maybe she could but the thought of doing so made her stomach fill with an unpleasant feeling that she tried her hardest to ignore.

"I haven't had much of a chance to do serious case work in quite some time, it will be interesting to attempt it with my current levels of knowledge." that much was true, back when she was a child she would solve cold case murders for fun, but stuff like that only got her so far, the scars of her hands were a permeate reminder of that fact. Having let this worry slip during a conversation Makoto had the class come together and perform various mock mysteries for her to solve. The 'Mastermind' changed from one case to the other, and sometimes multiple people would work together. Most of the time the scenarios were quickly solved, but a few times they had actually managed to trip her up by making details that looked easy enough to get that they could have been a mistake. Learning from those and pushed her to new heights.

"Heh, when you say stuff so seriously like that its almost kind of comforting." Makoto of course believed that no matter what the truth was or how well it was hidden Kyoko would be able to find it.

The entered into an elevator and slowly descended to the bottom floor. "So I don't believe you elected many details on this new associate of yours, what are they like?" Kyoko asked, trying her best to have a casual conversation. It had been brought to her attention that if her people skills remained as low as they were at the start of the class her ability to gain evidence through questioning would be compromised. So when appropriate and with the people she trusted she let her walls down in order to test conversation skills. Of course the one who would hold the title for the least amount of walls would probably be the boy next to her.

"Oh well they are really smart, and skilled too," he smiled that same earnest smile and leaned back against the elevator. "The Ultimate Gamer, but they aren't a shut in like you would imagine someone with that title. Actually they are kind of nice, and really smart too."

Kyoko nodded, trying to form a mental image of someone who would hold the title of Ultimate Gamer. The first thing that sprang to mind was of course Hifumi, but such images were more from societal expectations then anything else. They could also look like Chihiro, or even a beauty like Junko. There were too few details, but as the elevator hit the bottom she canceled the line of thought. Her own eyes would be able to take in the image of the person they were to meet.

The two walked out of the building and into a large open area with a fountain and a bench, which was occupied by Chiaki Nanami, who looked up from her game and upon spotting Makoto broke out into a happy expression. She gave a wave to the two of them and suddenly Kyoko found her mind rushing with thoughts.

 _'So this new friend is a woman, but wait why wouldn't Makoto have mentioned this?'_ she thought to herself, following each step next to her classmate even as her mind raced. _'Wait, I never asked for a specific gender or name, all I knew was that they were Makoto's friend that he had been spending lunches with. So without thinking I would have used gender neutral speech, and Makoto being the kind of person he is would have simply followed my lead without thought himself.'_

"Sorry we are a bit late Chiaki, did you manage to get some stuff for lunch?" Makoto asked as they finally drew closer to the girl. Chiaki nodded and revealed three wooden boxes containing the kanji for 'fresh' on the tops of them. Whatever she said in response to Makoto was drowned out by Kyoko's thoughts.

 _'Chiaki...no wait Chiaki Nanami, I remember that he used her last name once when talking about her, but Nanami could equally refer to either a male or female.'_ But now that they are face to face he was calling her by first name, something that he didn't even do with all of his classmates yet. She refocused her attention long enough to catch that she was comfortable using his first name as well, and that meant they were on fairly good terms with each other. But beyond that both of their body languages spoke to the fact that neither seemed to hold any particular distrust or worry that members of the opposite sex held for each other. Even around friends many girls would hold themselves in a particular way, either to lessen or increase the amount of attraction one might gain from looking at them. Of course there were exceptions, such as Junko Enoshima who let loose an aura that drew peoples eyes to her, or Kyoko who was able to fully control her body language despite the situation.

But these two, talking to each other and laughing about some joke one or the other had made were standing opposite of each other without a hint of worry, as if they had no discomfort around each other at all. To see Makoto so open with someone, and for the someone to be a girl whose body language was also open, it made Kyoko feel uneasy. Not in a way that indicated either of them were threats or something akin to that, but rather the uneasiness came from a feeling she was unsure of. A quick cough into her hand drew their eyes toward her, allowing for Kyoko to take control of the conversation. So long as she was focused on something else she could push the odd feelings aside for the moment.

"I am sure that Makoto has already told you about me, but regardless my name is Kyoko Kirigiri, the Ultimate Detective. I have some idea of the situation from what he has told me, but would like to hear the words from you." she pulled out a notepad and a pen, ready to take notes.

Chiaki frowned at the cold voice of the other woman, but after seeing the same easy going smile on Makoto's face she quickly realized that she wasn't trying to be mean, but rather it was just an aspect of her personality. So without further questioning Chiaki launched into the story about how she had met Hajime and how he had eventually never shown up again. The entire time Kyoko took notes, only occasionally stopping to ask for further details on things Chiaki hadn't explained clearly the first time. Overall it took almost twenty minutes before Kyoko felt satisfied that she had gotten as much information as she could. But still something was bothering her. During their conversation there had been a few times when talking about Hajime had obviously upset her, voice getting snagged on a word. And during those times Makoto would put a comforting hand on her shoulder that seemed to calm her. Seeing this happen brought back the same feeling that she had felt upon seeing Makoto smile at her.

Her own curiosity was getting the better of her in this, so she turned toward Makoto and said. "Naegi, would you mind getting us drinks from the vending machine?"

He gave a nod. "Yeah, be right back!" he gave a wave to the two of them before turning and walking toward one of the schools many vending machines.

Once he was safely out of earshot Kyoko returned her focus back to Chiaki. "There are a few additional questions I wished to ask you, a few regarding the case and one of a more...personal nature."

The Ultimate Gamer gave a nod, ready and willing to answer any question put forth by someone who was going to help her find her lost friend. "Go ahead."

"Your relationship with Hajime Hinata, how would you describe it?" Kyoko questioned, watching for her response.

The implication of the question didn't escape Chiaki, one could only spend so much time around her classmates with more sordid interests without picking out subtle words such as that. "W-we are just friends." she answered, a light pink blush coming to her cheeks. At least she thought as much, or rather she had never put much thought into that question. It wasn't that he was unattractive, but he had put a barrier between them at almost all times by thinking of himself only as a reserve course student, and her as an Ultimate. Even their friendship which she held dear survived despite that divide, not because of it.

Kyoko gave a slow nod before asking her second question. "And what of Makoto Naegi, what relationship do you hold with him?"

This time the blush that came to Chiaki's face was anything but light, now both cheeks were tinted with a deep red color. "I-I mean to say that we-" she found herself fumbling around for words without any clear idea as to why. The two of them were just friends, they met up for lunch, played games, and talked. Sure it was a lot of fun, but so was being with her classmates and playing games.

But then some rouge part of her brain compared the two, and found a difference. Playing with her friends was nice, bringing them together to enjoy themselves, but playing with Makoto felt different. Even if they ended up playing a dull game, or were on a bad losing streak it felt like they would have the same amount of fun as if they were playing perfectly. She tried to imagine bringing Makoto to one of the gaming sessions with her class, imagined him playing games with some of the other students, and for some reason doing so gave her an uncomfortable feeling, the kind of feeling when someone was playing her favorite game at the arcade and had lined up a full five dollars with no intention of stepping away.

Her brain continued the line of thought, imagining Makoto spending time with one of her classmates by himself the way they did. Some of the ideas were funny, especially with some of the crazier guys in her class. But imagining him spending such time alone with the girls in her class, that brought back the bad feeling she had.

Kyoko could see the girls emotions were in utter chaos and decided to take a small mercy on her. "I see, so you are rather close then."

Chiaki, for lack of any better answer in her own confusion, simply gave a nod of her head.

Before any further questions could be asked Makoto arrived with the drinks and a smile. "Hey guys, hope you like lemonade."

Both girls looked at him, but Chiaki suddenly blushed and looked away for a moment. Seeing that she had made the girl uncomfortable made Kyoko feel a bit guilty, like she had overstepped some boundary and ended up hurting someone. "I am going to take my leave and begin my investigation, would you be willing to exchange phone numbers so I can keep you updated?"

Chiaki nodded and the two exchanged numbers before Kyoko turned and walked away, her own feelings still in a jumble.

Makoto frowned as she walked away without even taking the lunch that Chiaki's classmate had prepared for them. "Heh I should have warned you she could be pretty intense sometimes." he sat down and pulled out the food, offering Chiaki hers so the two of them could eat.

About halfway into the food Makoto turned toward Chiaki. "Oh I heard they were opening a new arcade in town, unlimited games for everything but the prize games, I was thinking it could be fun to go this Saturday and hang out."

"Hm, that does sound like it would be fun." Chiaki admitted.

There was silence for a moment as the unspoken invitation went completely ignored by the Ultimate Gamer. "Would you uh...like to go...you know with me this Saturday?"

Realization suddenly dawned on Chiaki and her blush came back in full force. "Um...yes that sounds like fun...I think." she didn't know what she added that last part, whenever she got nervous she always sounded uncommitted to things.

"Awesome, I bet with the two of us working together we could beat any game in there with ease!" Makoto flashed her a grin before returning to his food.

The rest of their usual lunch meeting went by quickly, and soon it was time for them to part ways again.

"W-wait," Chiaki suddenly said, feeling a bit nervous. "I was thinking, since I gave my number to Kirigiri that maybe you would want it as well?"

He blinked and then laughed a bit. "Yeah it is a bit silly we haven't already done that isn't it?" the two exchanged numbers quickly and Makoto was forced to jog away, giving a small wave toward the girl.

Chiaki let out a breath and turned around to walk away herself, before a sudden message flashed on her phone.

 **Hey look my first text message to you!**

 **And now my second.**

 **When will it ever stop?**

Despite her confused state due to Kyoko's question Chiaki couldn't help but laugh as the antics of her friend. She shot him a few texts back and walked toward her own class, a smile plain on her face.

* * *

Day passed into night and the horror began.

A hallway filled with blood and dead bodies of Hope's Peak Academy guards, located deep underground to protect the precious thing on the other side of the door at the end of the hallway. Two young women walked by the scene of darkness, one whose eyes were constantly scanning for threats, and the other who used the blood splattered on the wall to leave long traces with her fingers.

The one who was able to act so calmly in the middle of the bloodbath wondered what these people had felt before their lives were snuffed out. During their last moments had they felt despair? Was the knowledge that your life was over the kind of despairful knowledge that could even trump other feelings of deaspair? One day she hoped to know, the depths of despair that the feeling of ones life ending could bring.

The cautious girl opened the door in front of them, allowing the other to enter into the room and smile at the young man on the other side of the door.

"Kamukura-senpai!" Junko Enoshima called out, a manic smile on her face. "I am so glad we could finally meet face to face!"

The young man looked up toward Junko, red eyes flashed in the dark room. "Hm, how boring."

* * *

Chiaki laid back on her bed dressed in her night clothes with a satisfied sigh, the comfortable mattress feeling like heaven after a long day. Her eyes spied her phone, revealing a new message on it from Makoto.

 **Gonna get some sleep, hope you have good dreams :)**

Chiaki sent a reply back to the him.

 **You too, sleep well.**

She turned off the screen and held the phone to her chest for a moment, and felt her heart beat a bit faster then normal.

"How...do I feel about Makoto?"

* * *

 _Man screw the first part of this chapter. Dealing with so many character in the same location makes my head hurt. I just hope that it turned out well for those of you reading it._

 _So I decided to move back class 77 learning about Makoto until next chapter, because I feel like I can get a bit better of a reaction from that. So next chapter we have a date that isn't a date, the start of an investigation, and a few other fun surprises in store for this alternate universe._

 _If you are interested in seeing new chapters come out quickly the best thing to do is to drop a review to tell me your thoughts, follow so you don't miss the next chapter, and favorite it. Also spread the links to your friends, word of mouth is always appreciated._

 _Oh one final note, yes Kyoko does have feelings toward Makoto, but this is a Chiaki x Makoto fanfic first and foremost, but from most information sources it seems that the two might have had feelings for each other in the main story, so I felt like it was a valuable element to keep in. Anywho catch you guys next chapter._


	4. A Date, a Date, a Dance, and Despair

"Guys I think the class rep is dying."

The assembled members of class 77 turned toward Kazuichi with mixed looks of annoyance and curiosity.

"What the hell are you talking about, idiot?" Fuyuhiko turned to the Ultimate Mechanic with an annoyed expression.

"Isn't it obvious?" he pointed toward the front of the classroom, toward a board that was blank except for a 'have a great weekend!' message that one of the students had put up. "No big class activity for Saturday, don't you guys think thats a bit strange?"

"Hey even I didn't make my team run laps every morning, a bit of personal time is needed or else people get sick of each other, even a bad coach knows that much." Nekomaru explained, only really half listening to the conversation.

Akane perked up at that. "Well if we aren't all getting together then I am going to get a rematch with you old man, that last fight was just a warm up!"

Peko let out a small sigh. "If you do end up fighting please don't do it near the school grounds, or else we will be forced to help clean it up again."

"Yeah you bastards better not draw us into some dumb situation just because you want to punch each other to death." the Ultimate Yakuza let out a sigh of annoyance at his overzealous classmates.

"I agree, you two shouldn't fight at all, you are friends aren't you?" Sonia asked, looking around the room. "They are friends right, I didn't misunderstand?"

"Tch, its not like I want to fight him because I hate the old man, I just want to prove I can kick his ass." Akane replied with an annoyed roll of her eyes.

"You guys are missing the point here!" Kazuichi bellowed. "What could make our class rep suddenly break the streak of weekend get toge-"

As if the universe had perfectly planed to end his rant mid-breath the door to the classroom opened, revealing a plain looking young man, eyes scanning the room until they landed on Chiaki. "Hey Chiaki! Ready to go?"

The Ultimate Gamer looked up from her handheld and gave a nod, standing up and grabbing her bag before walking to the front of the class. "See you guys on Monday okay?" she smiled to her various classmates and left with the young man.

For a moment there was complete and utter silence throughout the room as the collective group tried to figure out just what the hell had just happened.

"Um, I am not just imagining that the person our class rep walked out with was a guy am I?" Mikan tapped the side of her head. "I fell pretty hard this morning, so I want to make sure."

Hiyoko scoffed and kicked the back of Mikan's chair, causing the Ultimate Nurse to fall in a way that drew the eye, and some blood from Teruteru's nose. "You dumb pig, even if you didn't have eyes you should have been able to tell that was a guy."

Ibuki laughed a bit and shook her head. "Man I thought I was rock and roll, that pipsqueak came into the class without a worry on his face."

"He was like a brave masked stranger, arriving to distract the villain while the heroine delivered the true final blow." Sonia sighed dreamily, lost in her own world.

Mahiru shook her head, finding a small headache building from her classmates usual antics. "Honestly guys its not that we-"

"We should follow them!" Souda suddenly shouted out, returning focus to him.

"What are you talking about you idiot?" Akane asked, raising an eyebrow at the suggestion.

"What if that guy is taking advantage of our class rep, she could be in a totally bad situation." Souda pointed out.

"False," Gundham suddenly called out. "The man who picked up our class rep had no hint of the underworld attached to him, he reeks of a heavenly aura."

Seeing as Gundham had a pretty good grasp over people the rest of the class lost the idea that the guy who had come in had any ill intent. Except of course for Souda, who would always have the opposite opinion of the Ultimate Breeder.

"I still think something bad will happen, just you watch."

* * *

"Kamukura-senpai I want to take you on a date!"

"Hm, very well."

* * *

Kyoko had dealt with a great number of cases in her time as a detective. Some small, others large. She had found people and animals that were hiding in places where no one else would have been able to possibly discover them, find clues in cases that were so expertly hidden that it took an Ultimate to even recognize that they were clues at all. And yet in all that time she could honestly say this.

She had never investigated someone who had ever trace of their existence erased.

"Hajime Hinata," she put down a few more notes in her log book with a frown, as if by looking at the words they would rearrange and solve the mystery for her. She had spent the last few days asking around, and there were people who knew him. People who could describe him, even people who had him in the background of their pictures. But upon searching for him in the school database, nothing. Searching the internet, nothing. In the current day and age someone who had managed to live and be a teenager not having left any digital footprint was nearly impossible. And as it turned out, it had been.

She had expanded her web to various interests classmates has noticed him enjoying and found strange things. Comments that were responded that that simply showed 'deleted by owner'. Of course this in and of itself wouldn't be too odd, as some of the place she looked had multiple posts like that, but on others it was only that one, and the responses to what the person had said were all positive, so being deleted out of spite for others opinions wasn't a motive. Besides even deleting ones profile would still leave the message so as to not leave blank space. No someone would have had to go bit by bit in order to remove each post.

In other words someone had tried to turn Hinata into a ghost, someone who had most likely existed but couldn't be proved to have specifically been anywhere. But why would someone go to such lengths just to get rid of a reserve course student? That was the question that currently plagued the Ultimate Detective.

No matter how she looked at it a young man with no criminal connections, or famous/infamous parents or friends suddenly disappearing into nothingness simply made no sense. The amount of effort it would take just to go about something like that was mind boggling. It took time, effort, and money to erase someone from a world where everything was recorded.

But she did take heart in knowing her enemy was all knowing. They hadn't erased the reserve student from pictures that had him in them by accident, which meant they couldn't check everything. Also no gag order had been put on the various students that had been in the same class, but randomly talking about one student probably wasn't a big enough leak risk for them to go that far.

She had theories on the how, but that wasn't important until she knew why. Why was Hajime Hinata so important that they would go so far as to even need a how? Who had he crossed?

Kyoko pushed herself away from the computer and put her hand against her eyes. The only clue so far was that there weren't any useful clues.

"Maybe," she typed into her computer again and brought up a file that contained a number of reserve course students, pulled off of the less secure source that contained a number of student files. Her father really wasn't the best with passwords, even someone who wasn't computer savvy like her could have guessed it. HopesPeak1234. It was almost depressing.

Once she got the basic idea of how the files were set up she began to make one of her own for Hajime Hinata, inserting a picture and enough information to make it seem just about right, and then inserted it into the rest of the Reserve Course files. From then she kept a careful eye on it, and after ten minutes the file was suddenly deleted.

"Hm, someone is going a long way to keep you hidden, Hajime." she logged off the computer, which she had gotten onto with another students information before stepping back outside. This was going to be a bit more difficult then she had first assumed.

* * *

"Man, Hope's Peak is awesome but its nice to be able to get out sometimes you know?" Makoto smiled at his traveling partner, the two having taken a seat on a bullet train to the outskirts of the city. Apparently the central parts of the city tended to get rather clogged up in terms of foot traffic, so the business owners wanted to draw crowds to more locally owned businesses that tended to exist near the fringe parts of the city.

Or at least thats what Byakuya had told him, seeing as it had been his notion to open it and his families money that helped open the business. His exact words had been something like 'I want to draw money away from competitors in order to create investment opportunities from self starters, if we can make the outskirts as big of a draw as the central city the Togami family will shine even brighter.'

Makoto didn't exactly get all of that, but after letting Byakuya make his speech he had managed to score two free tickets and armbands that would let them skip the lines to enter, so it wasn't that much of a pain to listen to Byakuya wax poetically about how amazing his family was.

Chiaki simply nodded in response and returned to her game, which in and of itself might have seemed rude to others. However Makoto knew the truth behind the matter, when it came to really public settings the Ultimate Gamer tended to retreat to the place she felt most comfortable, her games.

That was fine though, as Makoto had gotten used to the odd bits of silence between the two of them and simply enjoyed the ride. Even with the bullet train it still took a bit to arrive, but once they got to their destination and stepped out the view of the city was rather amazing. Even this far from the center a number of large buildings shot forth from the ground like urban trees, and standing among them was the newly created 'Megacade', the first entertainment only skyscraper, which was to say it was a massive building thats sole purpose on each floor was providing entertainment. Each floor contained things like movie theaters, restaurants, bookstores, and its newest addition on the fifth floor and sixth floor, the words largest arcade, containing not only hundreds of arcade cabinets, but even sold spaces for consoles and virtual reality games. It was a unique place, and with the Togami seal of approval it was no doubt top of the line as well.

"Man, his family really doesn't go in by halves." Makoto shook his head and offered Chiaki his hand. "Come on, the crowds are going to be huge."

Chiaki looked at his offered hand for a moment, a light pink blush coming over her cheeks before she took it in her own and allowed herself to be pulled away into the maelstrom of people. In her head she was forced to continue a narrative that there was nothing weird about holding hands while trying to get through a crowded area. Nothing was strange about looking at the person holding your hands and thinking how nice it felt to do so. There was nothing at all different about holding Makoto's hand from holding anyone elses.

Eventually the two of them found their way to the front of the building, only to see a massive line that wrapped around the entire block, full of excited people, most of whom were young adults that had probably skipped their Saturday classes for a chance to enter the arcade section of the building. Thankfully the wristbands that Makoto provided to the bouncers at the front of the building got them through quickly, and they were even escorted to the employee elevator so that they wouldn't have to deal with the lines for the public use lift.

When they finally arrived the sight that met them was beyond the expectations that either of them had held. Of course they had thought that some of the advertising would be only that, something to really get people excited for the opening of a massive arcade. But seeing it now, two floors that were connected by a spiral staircase and smaller lift exclusively used by people going between these two floors and both floors filled with arcade cabinets. Beyond just the existence of a countless number of the cabinets was the fact that even those whose age made it difficult to find them in anything less then awful states looked just as clean as the most advanced game there. To the side was a small bar with servers giving out glasses of soda and snacks for free due to it being the opening day. The music was modern hits from a variety of genres, seemingly chosen by those who were within the arcade to ensure that it fit the atmosphere better then the radio blaring.

To Chiaki, who loved games and felt connected to them in ways other people didn't understand, this place was like heaven. She turned and gripped Makoto's shirt, pulling him down so they were face to face. "We need to play everything." her voice was like one who was speaking in a prayer, low and pleading.

"Yeah, lets do it!" Makoto said with a hint of exasperation. He was used to this kind of behavior from dealing with Aoi, who tended to explode like that around water parks.

So the two of them rushed into the massive hoard of games and began to go one by one, playing only a single life on each so that they could get the full experience of each game. Of course seeing as Chiaki was the better gamer of the two Makoto decided to amend a 'single life' to 'however long Chiaki makes it' so he wouldn't be left sitting around with nothing to do.

Besides that he had felt strange during the first few games when other people would jump in and end up playing next to Chiaki. Those sorts of feelings weren't exactly normal for him but he hadn't the time to explore them because during those times that someone else got on Chiaki had faced some misfortune that was followed by a game over.

Of course this didn't hurt the pride of the Ultimate Gamer, arcade cabinets were deliberately unfair, a perfect run was something that only people who practiced day after day on the same cabinet would be able to accomplish.

That being said despite bouncing from game to game the two were having the times of their lives, while up above on the second floor another couple were getting ready to begin their 'date'.

"I still fail to see the importance of us being here." Izuru stated while looking over the crowds with eyes filled with boredom. Despite having agreed to being dragged out of his hole in the ground he was absolutely miserable in this kind of setting.

Junko gave an overly dramatic sigh and shook her head. "That's because I am waiting for the maximum amount of people, you don't throw the bowling ball before all the pins are set up," she tilted her head to the side and broke out in a grin. "But seeing someone get hit with a bowling ball while they are trying to set up pins is a rather funny idea, don't you think so Kamukura-senapi?"

He gave a grunt in response and returned to observing the crowd.

Makoto doubled over for a moment as he drew in a breath, looking over the first floor of the arcade with a grin. They had managed to clear out every shooter, racer, fighting, and brawler on the entire first floor, moving through years of gaming history as they did. The second floor would have less gaming cabinets and more actual consoles, and as someone whose family hadn't exactly had the finances for that sort of thing he knew the odds of him being able to keep up with Chiaki were low. It didn't bother him too much through, because the only game left was his personal favorite.

"Boogie Boogie Rebellion?" Chiaki asked, looking toward the game in front of her. It was a large screen set up with a small floor with four arrows going in each cardinal direction. From what she could observe about the game one played by moving their feet on the arrow in time with what appeared on the screen. It seemed straight forward enough, but she had never exactly been the best at exercise or workouts.

"Yeah, back when my sister and I used to go to the local arcade this was always one of the most fun, don't worry about messing up its pretty forgiving." he slid through the songs, but realized with the selection picking something out would take way longer then he would have liked. "Do you mind if I just put it on random?"

Chiaki gave a nod in response, so Makoto hit random and took the stand.

What came playing was the exact opposite of what either of them would have chosen for themselves, a high energy pop song, all about two lovers trying to reach each other. Their surprise to the song was shown by the twin blushes that graced their faces, yet when the time to play began they cast away their worries and moved to the song, hitting arrow after arrow on the song as they rose up. This was a game that both parties could say they were equal in, with Makoto's experience and Chiaki's skill the two of them expertly navigated he ever changing series of steps needed, hitting greats and perfects without missing a bit.

"Now Switch!" the machine called out, dipping the volume of the song for a moment.

The two effortlessly switched places, seemingly moving as if they knew exactly how the other would progress, catching up as the arrows once again shot forward, moving to the beat of the song of the two lovers. Just as it seemed the song had reached its end the machine called out "Bonus Round!" and the song kicked into a verse that wouldn't appear for players who scored anything less then a near perfect game, wrapping up the story of the lovers by having them seal their vows with a kiss.

By the time the final line came out both Makoto and Chiaki were deeply out of breath, but smiling none the less once the announcement came from the machine. "Good Game!"

A sudden cheer exploded through the room as the crowd that had gathered to watch them during their session congratulated the two.

"That was awesome Chiaki!" Makoto laughed and pulled the smaller girl into a hug, filled with the rush of endorphins that only a good work out could provide.

For a moment the Ultimate Gamer froze in the embrace, but with shaky hands she put her own arms around the young man and gave him a hug in return. If she had been more romantically minded like her friend and classmate Sonia she imagined that she might be drawing comparisons to how he smelled to something pleasant, but all she could think in her straightforward mind was that he sweat the two of them had produced made them both feel soggy, but she seemed to be able to ignore that while hugging him.

"Bah, way to hopeful for me," Junko drew out a detonator with a shiny red button at the top of it. "Would you like to do the honors Kamukura-senapi?" she turned to look at the long haired man, but found his attention was focused on the two people who had been playing the dance game. His expression was somewhere between his bored resting face and...fascination if her talent wasn't betraying her.

"Oh well, more for me." It was normal for a girl to become jealous at the sight of a guy they had invited on a date to be looking at another girl. In order to refocus their attention some women would do something flashy or eye grabbing in order to return the focus back to themselves. And if one thing could be said about Junko, it was that she knew how to be flashy.

She pressed down on the detonator in her hand.

And then the world went to hell as the sounds of explosions, the smell of smoke, and shards of broken glass reigned supreme.

* * *

 **Hello again loyal and first time readers, this is the part where I ask you to kindly favorite and follow if you are interested in seeing more of this story, and review if you want to see the next chapter come out. Bellow this are just some personal ramblings from me as the author, so feel free to read on or not. Thank you.**

 **I don't know what I was thinking deciding to just repeat what was the hardest part of this chapter with the class I have more difficulty writing for. I do hope it came out okay, or at least readable and able to get a few laughs. This chapter had some unique difficulties for me, as I had to show that the bond between Makoto and Chiaki was growing in a normal way that teens of their age might experience, a little to fast and yet still insufferably slow as neither party really knows what is going on.**

 **First time relationships, crushes with people who are perfect for you, those kinds of things are from which I draw experience. The rest of it is guesswork.**

 **If there is a single disappointment in this chapter its that I am not more experienced with song fic, so I could add lyrics to make the DDR scene a bit more...romantic? Energetic? Something like that. I am bad at matching movement to music, so if I ever decided to go through and edit this story I might actually pull in someone experienced with that sort of thing to coach me. But that is for other matters.**

 **Anywho tune in next chapter for an opening battle of Despair and Hope as Makoto and Chiaki are thrown into Junko's attempted seduction of the Ultimate Talent into the path of Despair. Will a Lucky Student and a Gamer be able to turn the tides of chaos, or will they be consumed by the flames?**

 **Find out next chapter aye?**


	5. Hope meets Despair

Makoto Naegi was not the kind of guy who could leap up after getting knocked down by multiple explosives at once. He was sure that quite a few of his classmates might possess that level of physical or mental strength to leap into action right after something like that. But in his heart and body he was still just an average high school student, so it took him a few extra seconds to actually focus on what the hell had just happened. Once he regained his senses to a certain degree he began to run a mental list of things in order to prevent himself from panicking and falling unconscious again.

His body hurt but that was probably a good thing considering feeling nothing after that would probably mean he was dead. A quick check of his legs and arms revealed they were still intact and could be moved to a reasonable degree. After he finished his self examination the young man opened his eyes and tried pulling himself up into a sitting position. It was uncomfortable given the amount of pain his body was in, but if there was one would to describe Makoto other then average it was determined.

The first thing he noticed was that everything was on fire. Of course it would have been hard to miss this fact even if he was dazed. A wall of fire seemed to be blocking the door and slowly spreading out from the walls, which looked much worse for wear. If he was forced to hazard a guess that would be where the explosion most likely originated from. There were quite a few injured people laying about the ground, most likely knocked back by the force of the explosion.

Makoto pulled himself up with a grunt of effort and looks to his side, eyes widening as he sees Chiaki next to him, a small gash on her head letting blood leak down her face. "Chiaki!" he reaches towards her but stops short of actually grabbing her. It was impossible to say just how injured she might be, and attempting to move or even touch her could agitate the wounds.

Was this some sort of terrorist attack, or maybe a pipe with some flammable substance had burst in the wall? Of course if the fire kept advancing like it was it wouldn't make much of a difference what the cause was, the result would be the same. "Why the hell aren't the sprinklers going?" he muttered just loud enough for the sound to reach his own ears, looking up toward the ceiling at the nonoperational fire suppressant system. His focus was pulled from those thoughts as Chiaki began to rouse, looking up at him.

"M-Makoto?" she asked, trying to pull herself up but quickly being blind sighted by pain. "Whats going on?"

"I'm not sure, but don't try to move too quickly, you could be really hurt." he knew some basic stuff about first aid, one didn't survive Hope's Peak Academy without some basic knowledge about patchwork with the insane students. But in a situation like this all his training amounted to what not to do rather then what he could do.

* * *

From the second floor of the arcade room two figures looked down at the chaos. Izuru looked down with a bit of interest, which in perspective to a normal person would look like the level of curiosity a normal human would give to a particularly interesting line of ants. "Their movements are erratic, some of them are even trampling over the fallen as if they had somewhere to run too." the words were cold and clinical, much like everything else about the boy.

"I know, look at the despair and fear on their faces, isn't it enough to get those fires started?" Junko shuddered in delight to see the people scramble around. "I mean, yah know metaphorically and shit." given Izuru's literal mind the last thing she wanted was him thinking she was an idiot for saying their fear started the fires the bombs had.

He simply gave a grunt as a reply and went back to watching the people scrambling around. "They are erratic, but that is simply the fight or flight instinct kicked into confusion." the young mans natural melancholy began to return to his face as the situation quickly lost his interest.

Junko shook her head and gave a sigh, guys like him were almost impossible to please. Not that she minded a challenge, but a little appreciation would have been nice from time to time. "Well I know what might get things more interesting. Ready to see something suuuuper fucked up?" she offered the boy a wink before pushing another button on her cellphone, sending a text to one of the people inside of the building.

Despite being in an age of progress and invention the suicide rates among young people was a fast growing problem in Japan, one that Junko was able to abuse in an almost religious manner. A few prompts in the right direction and she could convince someone who was sad and stupid enough to do almost anything.

Out of the panicking crowd a young man ran toward the massive glass window and threw himself against it hard. "I'm not going to die in a fire, I don't want to be burned alive!" he shouted out the lines that Junko had fed him. After all just because he died didn't mean he wanted to die alone, and Junko had promised that everyone there would follow him straight to hell.

It took a few good throws but eventually his body went through the glass, dropping him hundreds upon hundreds of feet straight down into the pavement.

The panicking people had stopped to witness the display in silent terror, but the fire was advancing, and herd instinct was beginning to take over without the presence of a clear route of escape. Weak willed and powerless people nervously looked forward, waiting for their wills to snap.

"You have to jump, its the only way to avoid being burned!" a high pitched shriek came out from somewhere, and the people began to move forward.

"Now just sit back and watch Kamukura-senpai, watch all the ants d-"

"You got that wrong!"

"What?" Junko turned to try to find the source of the voice, and her eyes widened in disbelief as she saw just who had spoken up. "Oh hell." she muttered out.

Izuru turned his attention to the source of Junko's discomfort and tilted his head in interest.

* * *

Makoto had been horrified at the sight of the boy throwing himself out of the window, but had just managed to turn himself and block Chiaki's view of the terrifying event before it had happened. Followed by the sound of the woman he had felt a creeping despair come over him as if death was awaiting.

But before he had been consumed he felt Chiaki's hand on his, trying to use him to support herself to stand up. When he turned to look back there was some fear in her eyes, but before that was determination. The situation seemed horrible and it was, but rather then bending to it she was looking to fight against it despite her pain.

Seeing that strength Makoto was able to pull himself up by his straps and help her so she could stand. "You got that wrong!" he shouted out as loud as possible, diverting all of the attention from the window to Chiaki and himself. The ability to throw ones voice over such a loud area despite the panic was a difficult one to master, but after having seen Byakuya's overpowering voice and listening to Mondo yell out in rage he had managed to learn to strengthen his voice to the point where he could probably shout over an explosion.

Once the crowds attention was one them Makoto gave the group to Chiaki, who began to point and give orders to anyone that was in earshot, with Makoto giving the more sweeping orders for those who wouldn't have been able to pick up the young woman's voice. The basic instructions were simple, get people away from the fire, have a group of stronger men blocking the window so people didn't get any ideas. Hunt for fire extinguishers or water to put out the fire.

All the while Chiaki leaned on Makoto for support, her hand held firmly in his. Normally this contact would have made him nervous, but he could tell how badly she was shaking, how different this was for her. But both of them were determined to not let a single person here go the same route as the man who had jumped, so they stayed strong.

It seemed that all of the fire extinguishers were empty, which Makoto was storing in his mind for the next time that Byakuya felt the need to rant about the Togami brand of quality.

"Okay everyone, go into the kitchens and bring back dish soap, empty plastic bottles, paper rolls, baking soda, and vinegar!" his order might have sounded odd, but a group quickly went back to follow it, seeing as in this situation he was one of the only people giving orders. It was another benefit of his classmates, after being around them and picking up on their quirks he had learned to emulate bits and pieces from all of them.

Once they had everything that was needed Makoto opened up a can of middle school science and had them create bottled fire extinguishers. There were a few mistakes, but so long as they were tossed toward the fire it would have the same result. Thanks to the overload of plastic bottles that were in the snack bar they were spoiled for holders. Individually they wouldn't have much effect against a blaze as big as the one consuming the exit, but when fired all at once over chunks of the wall the fire was forced into a full retreat. It took quite a bit of time but with encouragement from the crowd the brave people who had volunteered broke through the fire.

It seemed whatever had caused the explosion was directed into the arcade room and knocked the door off its hinges. Using the strength of those who had been guarding the window they managed to get everyone out through the stairs and down to a quickly growing number of emergency vehicles that were lining up at ground level.

Chiaki and Makoto were the last two to leave the building, with Chiaki's arm around Makoto's shoulders to allow her a bit of help while they walked. They were quickly seen to by the trained first responders, given quick check ups and stitches for the cut on Chiaki's forehead. Overall there didn't seem to be anything broken, but they would still need to be checked out just in case.

Before they could debate this however a small group of people in suits came over, each wearing the Togami family crest on their person. They quickly talked off the medical personal, explaining that Hope's Peak had the best of the best in terms of treatment and they already had a ride.

Makoto and Chiaki looked at each other and shrugged, following after the suits while still sticking close together. "Did Togami send you guys?"

"Master Togami heard about the accident and wanted to have us escort you straight to the school in order to avoid any additional stress." one of the men answered in a professional manner.

Only once they were inside of the limo did the two teens finally manage to relax, almost collapsing into each other in utter exhaustion as they sat against the expensive leather. Before they could really manage to relax however a small video screen at the front of the limo came on to reveal Byakuya's face in all its stern glory. Yet behind his usual mask of professionalism laid the small hint of relief at the sight of his classmate. "I suppose an apology is in order then." he said in a rather bland tone.

"Heck yeah it is!" Makoto winced at the physical exertion of just raising his voice in response, which drew a concerned glance from Chiaki. That alone was enough to force him to relax. "I mean the fire was one thing, but none of the extinguishers worked, even the sprinklers didn't come on!"

That fact seemed to concern Byakuya more then any other. "Indeed, a full investigation will be launched into this matter. If it is any consolation from what was reported your actions prevented a tragedy from taking place. Still I am not one who fails to recognize when a debt is owed, so for the experience you have faced consider me in both of your debts for the moment. If you need anything and it is within my power ask and I will do whatever I can to help." a voice from off screen took his attention away. "Hm, I have to go, we shall continue this discussion another time." the screen blinked out, leaving the two in silence.

"Huh, I think that was his way of saying thank you." Makoto said as he rested back into the seat.

Chiaki blinked and shook her head. "Your classmates are weird."

"Yeah, kind of." Makoto laughed and turned to look at Chiaki, only to notice that she had managed to fall asleep against him right after having said that.

'Wow, she is really cute when she sleeps.' a blush spread over his face at that thought, not quite sure what to do. Thankfully he didn't have to think too long, as the gentle movement of the car and the lullaby of Chiaki's light breaths put him to sleep as well quickly enough.

* * *

This had been an absolute failure and an utter embarrassment. Those were the thoughts of Junko Enoshima as she watched the single casualty of her little demonstration scrapped up from the sidewalk. The entire street should have been stained crimson, but instead only a single spot which had been quickly cleaned spotless by building staff.

"It seems that your despair was defeated." Izuru looked at her with empty eyes, boredom reigning supreme. "Was that really the best that could be done?"

His words were normally a challenge that the girl used to push herself forward, but right now that droning emotionless voice just pissed her off. "Plu-ease as if that was the only thing that I could do." she shook her head and turned back with a frightening grin. "I already have a little surprise set up, gathering together a few people for a little battle royal action."

Izuru shook his head. "Hm, how boring."

Those words froze Junko's heart, how could he think something she was going to do would be boring. "No this next one is going to great. I already have it so the chance of failure would be near zero."

"That is what makes it boring. You already proved that with timing and work you can make people do things that defy survival instinct. Whats the point in a premade show without the risk of something less foolish." he turned his back on her and began to step forward. "Actually I would be interested in seeing that again."

"That?" Junko asked despite having a feeling she knew exactly what it was.

"That thing that managed to pull the herd back from their panic, by all rights your dread should have won out, but instead it was defeated. I couldn't have predicted someone doing that." there was no change in his voice, but to someone like Junko it was easy enough to pick out the meaning.

"W-wait!" she reached out to grab Izuru's arm, but he deftly moved it out of the way first. "Come on don't just give up on me because of a fluke. Give me a chance to show you how interesting the rabbit hole of despair can be."

His crimson eyes looked at her, like a god looking down upon an ant in judgement of it. "Very well, I don't suppose it would be much more troublesome then anything else." with that said he stalked off into the night to return to the school. By himself he could make it back faster then any car could drive.

When he had finally disappeared Junko let out a howl of rage, slamming her hand again and again into the stone walls of a nearby building, leaving a dent but also smashing her hand until it bled. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" she screamed with each blow, letting her anger drive each blow. If it wasn't for him everything would have been perfect, that sunny ray of light that could make people smile on a horrible day. Just knowing that someone with such a bright outlook existed pissed her off beyond reason.

She hated it.

She hated him.

It drove her mad.

She fell to her knees and let out a moan of pleasure.

It filled her with despair.

There was so much to do, plans to be changed, things to be done. Sure changing things this late in the game could have been bad, but it would be worth it to turn Izuru. Right now he was a wild queen piece on the board, and if he could be turned to her side hope lost. At the same time he could shift to hope and crush despair.

She laughed and laughed as her madness came over her.

This was much to fun.

* * *

By the time the two of them had arrived back at the Hope's Peak campus Makoto and Chiaki had been asleep for almost a full hour, and thus wouldn't have noticed they had arrived unless the driver and called back to let them know.

"Well uh...i'm sorry that didn't turn out to well." Makoto gave her a half hearted smile as he stepped out of the limo, offering a hand to help her out as well.

She took his hand gratefully and shook her head. "Not your fault." she muttered in a sleepy voice.

The two of them simply stood there for a moment after the limo had left, not really sure what to say but not wanting to leave after the day they had faced. "I am feeling pretty good, so I think I might just hold off on seeing the nurse until tomorrow." Makoto said, hoping to break the ice between them.

However Chiaki didn't take the bait, rather she was looking down at her feet as if something interesting was happening on the ground.

"Chiak-" Makoto was suddenly cut off by the feeling of soft lips pressed against his own. His eyes widened in surprise to see Chiaki kissing him with her own eyes closed.

The kiss only lasted a moment but when it ended both parties were utterly breathless. Chiaki's face turned a pure crimson and she turned and ran faster then she had ever managed before, until she became a blip in the darkness.

Makoto reached up and touched his lips without really thinking about it. Had she really kissed him? It didn't seem like he was dreaming, and there was still enough pain to verify that much at least. "What?" he finally managed to ask, his own voice small to his ears.

* * *

Chiaki collapsed on her bed still fully dressed and clutched onto a pillow as if it were a life preserver in a stormy ocean as her own chaotic mind began to replay the events of the day in a jumbled mess. She had gone to class, she had gone to an arcade, had fun, almost died, kissed Makoto.

Why had she kissed Makoto? Was it because she was happy to be alive? Did she like him? She rolled back and forth on the bed as the chaos of her mind continued to plague her, only stopping when a sharp pain in her side gave her pause.

She would have to talk to Mikan tomorrow, Chiaki assured herself that the Ultimate Nurse would know how to check for anything like that.

Suddenly her phone gave out a tone to inform her that she had received a message, specifically from Makoto. The girl hesitated for a moment before opening it.

 _Hey if you need to talk or anything I am here for you. I think you were amazing today, eh well I mean you are always amazing but uh well...hey just sleep well okay, if nothing else see you at ou- the bench Monday :)_

Her heart began to thud a bit faster then she was used too as a hot blush came over her face. It was only with a moments hesitation that she responded.

 _I am here for you too. Makoto. Good night._

The message was short but she hoped it conveyed some amount of her own feelings, despite not really understanding what they were herself. Despite all this however she managed to fall into a restful sleep only moments later, pushed by her utter exhaustion at the entire day. The last thought she had was of a brown haired boy and his smile.

* * *

Kyoko walked down the hallway with a sense of purpose, stopping in front of one of the many doors and giving it a firm knock. It was only a matter of moments before the rooms occupant opened the door, the entire room only illuminated by a single computer screens worth of light.

"Kyoko?" Chihiro looked toward his classmate with sleep deprived eyes, rubbing at them with the sleeve of his overly large bed shirt.

"I need your help with something, would you be willing to help?"

The young programmer tilted his head to the side, wondering if the school would be okay with a girl coming into his room at this hour. But seeing as he had hacked the school to change his gender to that he typically wore the outfit for it shouldn't be much of a problem, or rather it shouldn't be any more of a problem then another girl coming into the room of a classmate during their day off. "Sure, come on in."

Kyoko entered the door with purpose. This was another step forward, and with help she would crack the mystery of the disappearing boy, Hinata.

* * *

 **Well this was a long time coming, hope you guys weren't on the edge of your seats too long! I could give a thousand excuses like school and work, but to be honest I was just soooo unmotivated that I haven't written anything in quite some time. Hopefully this is a good bit of getting back into the game work for you guys to feast your eyes upon.**

 **Usual things, make sure to give a follow to catch content as it comes out, favorite it to show the love, and of course drop a review if you like or want to critic the chapter. Reviews are the fuel of fics I always say.**

 **As for what happens next chapter, well Junko begins version two of her despair plan, Kyoko gets the help of the Ultimate Programmer to hunt down someone who no longer exists, and of course dealing with first kisses.**

 **Till next time.**


	6. Even Hope can make Despair

Mukuro Ikusaba was a woman who had a certain reputation, one that led many to call her emotionless, or even a monster. From her history on the battlefield to the way she carried herself this reputation had done nothing but increase since the first moment she stepped onto the school grounds next to her sister. Of course those whispers didn't bother her, so long as she remained on mission there was nothing in the world that could pierce her carefully constructed defenses against such things. She was the Ultimate Soldier, she had never taken a wound and so long as she was alert that would continue to be the case.

However that wasn't to say that she was utterly devoid of emotion like a robot, rather she only felt very specific emotions, ones that related to her duty. To the squad, to the target, and of course above all else to her sister. When they were children she would often hear jokes that all of the emotion she lacked had been pushed into her sister. There was plenty to doubt about the accuracy of such a statement, but if one judged from a certain point then there would be no doubt that it held a grain of truth. Where Mukuro was quiet and kept to herself Junko was always ready to get into someones face. While she kept her body hidden under full layers of clothing her sister regularly wore a uniform that would show every inch of her body off.

And in her heart she knew that where she loved her sister unconditionally, her sister only saw her as a useful tool.

For most that would be a bitter pill to swallow, but for the Ultimate Soldier it mattered very little. Even if her sister utterly detested her she would stop at nothing to keep her safe. Even if she had to kill everyone in the way of the Despair Plan she would do so without hesitation.

She paused in place for a moment, remembering a look that a boy had given her. A smile that was only between them.

"Some...hesitation." she admitted to herself quietly before continuing her walk down the hall.

After only a few more moments of walking Mukuro paused in front of a door and reached out her hand as if to knock, but found herself pausing prematurely. Yesterday had been marked as the first phase in the Despair Plan, having the student council enter into a 'death game' scenario so that it could be captured and used to further spread Despair. But something had gone wrong, Junko had failed to show up and didn't leave any orders for her. Without orders she had been forced to abort the mission and allow the student council to go home having thought it was just one big prank. Luckily she was known as a rather shy girl she they had allowed it to pass thinking that some troublemaker had talked her into some practical joke.

She had followed what backup instructions she could figure from when she had asked Junko what to do if worst came to worst and the gathering was a failure. Purge the files on the student council and the blackmail and await further instructions. It pained her to throw away such hard work, but in the day and age of technology it was impossible to guess what could be checked, so she had ran a virus to collect the data from the systems they were using into about twenty flash drives and melted them in the schools boiler room.

But it had almost been a week now since her sister had gone silent. She knew that Junko was still alive, because in the event of her death the Monokuma's that were being mass produced would activate and gone on a rampage worthy enough to give her beloved sister a funeral dirge of despair, and seeing how thousands of murder happy monster bears weren't wandering the streets in search of warm bodies to tear apart she could confirm her sisters continued survival.

But that lead to the question of what could cause Junko Enoshima to throw away all her plans and retreat into her room like an otaku on a magical girl bender. There was only one way to find out, and so after gathering her courage Mukuro brought her hand forward and opened the door, pushing into the room and shutting it quickly behind her. The walls of this room had been soundproofed to ensure their conversations would never leave it, so insuring the closed nature of the room was a top priority.

After drawing in a breath that contained all her courage the second Despair turned around and opened her eyes to the room. What she saw stole away Mukuro's ability to process rational thought for a moment. The floor was littered in empty wrappers and discarded cans, the bed was an absolute mess of sheets and blankets and obviously hadn't been used for quite a few days. Makeup scattered the ground, some opened and spilling contents onto the floor and others just fallen. The lights were out, which was unusual as Junko prefered to keep the room bright in order to avoid any sneak attacks.

The first thought that flew into her mind was that a battle had taken place, and before even that thought could fully process there was already a knife in her hand. But upon closer inspection more questions were produced. There were no blood stains despite the mess, the only damage to the walls was from thrown objects, but the scatter marks and indents were to random for anything to have been used as a projectile against another human.

If she had too guess from just a first glance, the damage around her was from a temper tantrum, not a fight.

Mukuro's eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and found her sister in front of a computer screen, head laid atop the keyboard and fully dressed in pajama's that were indecent by any standards, bordering on lewd if she were to wear them in front of anyone else. Mukuro stalked forward quietly, avoiding each piece of discarded trash and broken bits of glass from thrown objects to stand next to her sister, looking at what she had been writing on it.

 **Despair Plan v2.0**

 **Find new way to convert Kamukura-senpai back to the side of Despair**

 **Require new staging ground for a battle**

 **Both sides must have equal chance of victory**

 **NO STACKING THE DECK**

 **HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?**

 **I DON'T KNOW MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK OF SOMETHING!**

 **THINK OF SOMETHING YOU ARE ME HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK OF SOMETHING YOU WOULDN'T KNOW?!**

 **STOP YELLING AT ME!**

 **FUCK YOU!**

 **NO FUCK YOU!**

The conversation continued like that for the next few pages she could read. "This is bad." she muttered lowly to herself once she finished the document. Once Junko had a plan in place it was nearly impossible to drive her away from it until it was properly done. But something had caused her to throw away the first Despair plan, and now the aftershocks of letting go a fully formed plan were coming back to play havoc on her sisters mind.

After a moments internal debate Mukuro carefully nudged her sisters shoulder. "Junko, please we need to talk."

The Ultimate Despair cracked open an eye and let out a grunt of disapproval to the world around her before pulling her face from the desk. "I thought something smelled awful around here," she looked toward her sister and scowled. "What the hell do you want?"

"I...um...that is to say..." she had never quite known how to communicate with her sister, given that the force of her personality tended to overwhelm most people just by being around it. "I wanted to know what my orders are."

That drew a laugh out of the exhausted Junko. "Of course, some smelly jar head like you can't do anything without orders," the smile that played on her lips died rather quickly as she read over her previous notes. "The previous plan fell apart due to outside interference. Without Izuru on our side we lack the staying power to properly destroy the hopes of the students. A mass killing is awful, but without the schools project there to take the blame the odds of a collapse point being reached by using a mass brain washing video falls to under forty percent," she pressed her face into her hands and groaned. "All because of that worthless Naegi and that stupid bimbo hanging on his arm. Spreading their hope and preventing tragedy."

As usual Mukuro only half got what her sister was going on about, as she was simply meant to play muscle. But as soon as she mentioned Naegi her attention became laser focused. "Makoto played a role in stopping the plan?" that suprised her quite a bit, if anything Kirigiri had seemed like a much more likely threat to her goals.

"Just by random chance he took some stupid girl to an arcade that ass Togami was opening. The two of them managed to prevent the..." Junko stopped as she felt the temperature of the room drop down to a perfect zero. There were few things that could frighten the Ultimate Despair, in fact her brain normally processed fear as pleasure. But at that moment an animal part of her brain cried out in fear of being in the presence of something that could snap her neck between its jaws. She felt a vice like pressure on her shoulder, and turning her head revealed the owner of the hand applying that pressure was none other then her sister, wearing an unreadable expression.

"A...date?" Mukuro asked in what could only be described as a bestial growl.

"Thats what I said m-maybe if y-you cleaned out your ears..." Junko could barely push that insult out from her lips as she caught a look into her sisters eyes. Gone was the shuddering fool that she knew her sister to be. Now it had been replaced by the ruthless agent of Fenrir who had made grown men cry like babies.

"I see." Mukuro turned around and went to the door, exiting so silently that Junko couldn't have been sure that she had been there at all.

Junko finally released a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding as the aura her sister had let off finally dissipated with distance between them. "What the hell?" she looked at the closed door for a moment and shook her head to remove any remaining effects. "Whatever, I have work to do." she returned to her keyboard with hopes that something would change.

* * *

Makoto didn't know very much about women. Sure he had a sister, but his sister wasn't exactly the kind of person who would just sit there and let someone pick her brains, even if that person was her brother. Normally the lack of knowledge about the fairer sex didn't raise itself as an issue to him, but recently things had changed in that area.

It was grand secret that he had enjoyed spending time with Chiaki, even after she had stopped seeming so blue about the disappearance of her friend. Playing games with her, talking with her, and even texting her had become things he did without thought at this point, set into his daily routine the same as eating and bathing. But things had been a bit different ever since going to the arcade together. At first he thought it had just been shock from the violence of it all, but she didn't seem overly emotional when he brought it up.

"Man I just don't get girls," he decided while leaning back in his chair, wishing that lunch would hurry up and click. Most of the class were out on personal projects relating to their talents, but seeing as his 'luck' was more about just random happenstance it wouldn't have been fair to send him out just to test it. Instead he had just been given some normal school work to deal with.

"Well of course you don't silly, you are a boy after all," Aoi looked behind her shoulder at him before just turning her desk around completely so they could be face to face. "Whats eating yah?"

The young man blinked in surprise, having utterly forgotten he wasn't alone in the classroom today. The pool was undergoing its monthly cleaning so the water had been drained out to allow a full scrub down, which meant Aoi was in the same situation as him. "Its nothing I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Cooome on Naegi it is super boring just sitting here and romance drama is the best." she tilted her head to the side. "Well maybe not the best. There is swiming, doughnuts, Sakura, oh school activities and field trips are pretty fun too. But I mean it is still pretty cool you know?"

Instead of answering Makoto just gave a nod and debated internally if talking to Aoi was such a good idea. The Ultimate Swimmer was known to be a bit spacy on the best of days, but she was honest and straightforward, and that did mean he could ask her anything without worrying too much. "Okay, you see there is this girl I have been hanging out with."

"Is is Kyoko?" she asked.

"What?"

"Because if its Kyoko I probably won't be able to help out too much."

"It's not Kirigiri." he answered.

"Okay continue."

Makoto let out a small sigh before getting back to his thoughts. "So I have been spending time with this girl, but recently it feels like things have changed." he saw from the look on Aoi's face that she wanted him to continue. "I mean we have been meeting and hanging out for a few months and it was really nice, like having someone you could talk to about anything or just not talk and game with."

"When did it start to feel like things were changing?" Aoi asked without any of her usual silliness. Despite her spacey nature she took the feelings of her friends seriously, and it was obvious to see that Makoto was having real trouble here.

He looked down. "Well did you hear about the explosion at Togami's new building?"

That drew a snort from Aoi. "Unless you had earplugs you can't get him to shut up about the lawsuits he is trying to bring against everyone because of it."

"Well I was there, with Chi...Nanami. She is a big fan of games so I thought it would be fun for us to spend the day there. But then the fires broke out..." the image of the man jumping through the glass out of fear, the sight of others considering it to escape being burned, it still sent a chill through him even now.

Aoi put a hand on his and offered a warm and comforting smile. "Do you think maybe she is feeling shaken from that?"

He gave a shake of his head. "No, I mean she doesn't seem like it anyway, plus we already talked about it a few times."

"Hm," it was the most likely candidate for the reason, but that didn't mean it was the only thing. Some people were just able to get past that stuff quickly and others held onto it. "And there hasn't been anything else since then?"

Makoto thought for a moment before the image of them getting out of the car shot back into his mind. Their lips meeting, the blush on both of their faces. "Well we...um..." he blushed a bit and looked down.

"You?" Aoi tried to lead him on.

"We may have...I mean she...kissed me." he finally answered, his face bright red from admitting something so personal.

"Oh!" Aoi blushed a bit at learning something so private, but suddenly everything started to click into place. "And did you talk to her about that?"

He gave a shake of his head, turning even more red. "I mean it was probably a mistake so I didn't want to embarrass her." before he could continue Aoi brought down her fist on the top of his head with an annoyed scowl. "Ow! What the heck Asahina?"

"You dummy she is probably upset because she likes you but thinks you are rejecting her feelings!" Aoi couldn't believe how thick Makoto could be sometimes. From the guy who could read Kyoko's emotions to the guy who couldn't tell a girl kissing him probably meant she had feelings for him!

"But I thought it was just the stress making her do something weird, I mean there is this other guy she was talking about..." Makoto tried to defend his position with one part of his mind while the other mentally went over the information Aoi was giving him. Was it possible that Chiaki liked him? Well he knew she liked him enough to hang out everyday, and to bring him meals, and even to go out with him on a day off.

Aoi rolled up her notebook and slapped it on the top of his head. "Probably a tactic to scare away weird guys from approaching her. But if she kissed you that means something!" the meal bell finally rang out and Aoi slammed her fist down on the table. "Now you go out there and tell that girl how you feel, or else I am going to make you train with Sakura and me!"

"Y-yes ma'am!" he shot out of his seat and burst out into the hallway as fast as his legs could carry him. Training with those two would lead to his death.

Aoi watched him go and shook her head, leaning back in the chair. "Man, all the dependable guys get snatched up pretty quickly huh?" she giggled to herself and stood up. "Oh well, the bakery near here still sells baked goods, so I should be fine." she whistled to herself and exited the classroom as well.

* * *

Makoto finally paused his mad dash from the classroom at the elevator, watching the numbers tick down as it began its decent, all the while thinking about what he was going to say when he saw Chiaki. "Kirigiri always said that if you hit a snag you should make a list right?" he closed his eyes and focused on Chiaki.

From a purely physical aspect she was a super cute girl, the kind that pulled off the naive cute girl look without even trying. But beyond that she had one of the sharpest minds he had encountered outside of one of the ultimate's whose special ability was tied directly to their level of intelligence, and beyond that she was kind to everyone around her. She liked games which was pretty cool, and even through they were most of her life she liked exploring other hobbies and learning more about the world. He was still kicking himself for showing her the animated series behind Legends of Gladria after having expounded on its virtues. Of course the last time he had watched it he had been to young to realize how awful it was, but they still got a laugh out of it.

Thinking of her laugh brought a smile to his face, but then the matter at hand came back and he went back to business.

Did he like her? Yeah that much was easy to say. But he liked everyone so that wasn't exactly saying much. Just because you like someone doesn't mean you should end up going out with them. "So the real question is, do I like her more then I like other people?" with that thought he mentally ran a list of everyone he knew and compared them to Chiaki. His classmates were all interesting people, and he had no doubt that sitting for a lunch with them would be fun every once in awhile. But then he extended that time frame and saw one by one the scenario's fell apart. Some would end with him getting frustrated at being overdosed by their personalities, or them getting annoyed with him.

"So if I had a choice I would spend time with her over everyone else." with that much figured out he could begin to piece together his own feelings a bit more quickly. Ever since he had arrived at the school he had felt slightly inferior to the people around him, and while he still managed to make friends it was difficult getting them to lower their natural barriers created by their talents. But there wasn't any sort of barrier between Chiaki and himself. The two of them seemed to just click.

"We're both naturally optimistic," he realized, a smile growing on his face. Finally he had come to understand his own feelings, and with that in his heart he knew what to do next. The elevator finally touched the last floor and he exited the doors with a confident smile on his face.

* * *

Chiaki sat at the usual bench with her game system in hand, fighting through a wave of enemies while on the hardest mode, meaning that one missed dodge would be her doom. It was nice to have something that held her attention away from the world and its utter confusion for a few moments, even if with her skill even this sort of thing could only hold her for so long.

Over the past week the Ultimate Gamer had made her peace with the kiss and her feelings. At first she had felt a great deal of guilt for what she felt for Makoto, even if the exact reason why didn't make much sense to her. Of course she had loved to spend time with Hinata, being with him had been the highlight wof her day. Honestly if they had continued to hang out she could have imagined him in the place of Makoto, during that kiss. But she had made some peace with the fact that he had removed himself from her life, and despite her interest in knowing what had happened to him she didn't know what it would lead to. At this point could she still have the feelings she carried for him before?

After asking those questions she had come to the conclusion that she probably wouldn't. He would still be a great friend, but she couldn't see those feelings being the same, not after having met Makoto. His quiet confidence, his positive outlook, and the kindness he wore about himself. If ever the words 'a man who carries his heart on his sleeve' could have been used to describe someone it was him.

The kiss she had given him after the explosion had been a rush of emotions, but it wasn't something done just on accident or because of the stress. No the feelings behind it were much more genuine then that. But since that kiss she had failed to move forward on it, and for his part Makoto had done his best to not bring it up at all. It hurt, but part of her accepted it, because at least she could still keep her best friend.

She sighed a bit at that thought, right until a shadow was cast over her vision, distracting her just long enough to take the hit she had needed to avoid and cause a game over. When she looked up from her screen she saw Makoto looking down at her, with an expression she hadn't seen on him before. "Hello, Makoto." she greeted him with a small smile on her face, waiting for him to take his usual seat.

But despite their tried and true routine he simply stayed there, looking at her for a moment before drawing in a breath. "Chiaki I like you." the words spilled out of his mouth, and the instant they had he developed a bright blush on his cheeks.

The look was equally reflected on Chiaki's own cheeks. "I..um...like you too Makoto."

Makoto brought a hand into his hair and let out a sigh of frustration. "No I mean not like but...man I suck at words." he drew in a breath and looked down at her for a moment, as if trying to commit every detail of her face to memory before leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers in a gentle kiss.

For a moment Chiaki had no idea how to react to the sudden contact between the two of them. Her first kiss had been with Makoto, and during that whole time he had just seemed in total shock. Acting on more reflex then anything she put her arms around his neck and pushed herself into the kiss, returning it with innocent movements. The kiss might have only lasted a few seconds, but to the two of them it seemed like all the time in the world. "Wow..." Makoto looked down at her, red as a beet but wearing a smile fit for a fool.

Chiaki for her own part could only let out a sound of agreement and a nod, moving to sit back while forgetting she still had Makoto's neck wrapped in her arms. The sudden movement sent the Ultimate Lucky Student off balance and caused him to trip forward, and land his head face first into her lap, which seemed to have a bit of a bouncing effect and caused him to fall onto his back. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern before hearing a sudden laugh.

"I don't think I've ever felt better!" Makoto laughed and pulled himself up to a sitting position, looking up at her with a sense of pure adoration in his eyes. "So I think that I...I mean...I really like you."

Those words caused Chiaki's vision to go blurry for a moment, which seemed strange to her because she felt happier at that moment then she could remember feeling at the end of even her favorite game. "I really like you too." she set her game aside and following the madness that seemed to have gripped the two came off of the bench and wrapped her arms around him. "Makoto..."

He wrapped an arm around her and smiled. "Chiaki."

The two held each other there for a moment before standing up and sitting back on the bench, their hands resting on each other for a moment. This was their moment together. But it was not as private as either party thought.

* * *

Kyoko held a number of files in her arms as she walked out of the building, trying to will away the allure of sleep for a few more hours to go over the massive amounts of information that had been given to her over the past few days. Despite having hit a roadblock under her own power it seemed getting some help from her classmate had managed to leap her over it and advance her to new stages of this little mystery. But with each answer came new questions. Like after having discovered the program that had deleted her entry about Hinata Alter-Ego had discovered more encoded programs meant to further block anyone from looking into it.

There were programs meant to imitate his voice to call back home at set times, times apparently set so his parents would never be near the phone. If a call was sent from a former student the number would simply give a a message that the number had been disconnected. That meant the disappearance hadn't been the result of his family going out of the way to remove him, but rather it all lead back to the school itself. 4

Feeling quite confident in the new information she had procured she had made her way to the usual meeting spot, but before she could get much further she paused to see Makoto walking toward Chiaki with an odd smile on his face. The two talked, and then he leaned forward to kiss her.

The moments their lips connected Kyoko felt as if someone had stabbed her with a hot knife, and without realizing it she was stepping away from the area and into a building, clutching the files with shaking hands. Eventually her feet lead her to an empty classroom, shutting the door behind her and pressing her back against it.

She tried to think rationally about the scene she had just witnessed, trying to bring to mind what about it would bring about such a reaction from her. Kissing itself wasn't tied to any trauma she had ever experienced, as she had watched other people kiss before without suffering any ill effects. On top of that when she was younger she had kissed a few boys to test if it would bring about any of the feelings that detectives would often go through in stories when around members of the opposite sex that were aesthetically pleasing.

So that meant the kiss between them had effected her personally because it was the two of them. She didn't hold much opinion about Chiaki, so that left... "Naegi." she whispered his name and felt tears sting at her eyes as she slid down into a sitting position with her back pressed against the door. Her head hung forward and a few rouge tears fell from her face and too her knees.

* * *

Mukuro watched from the shadows as the kiss happened, and without a word moved from them and into the building just opposite of Kyoko. The only way anyone would have known she was there were from the indents that her fingers had made by pressing into the stonework of the wall. With a single movement she pulled out her phone and accessed the schools database, pulling up Chiaki's name from the registry of classes. It wasn't too difficult with such a limited amount of ultimate students. For a moment the Ultimate Soldier looked at the face of the girl, before the phone was obliterated in her hands by pressure she hadn't realized she had been exerting upon it.

"So this is...Despair?" she dropped the broken phone into a nearby bin and looked at her now empty hand, the one that bore the symbol of Fenrir. "Fenrir guiding principal number one, never let anything stand between yourself and your target." those words were gospel to her, and made her life what it was. She knew what she wanted now, and knew what stood in her way.

"All I need to do is remove her, once that is done the rest will be easy." a mad smile broke across the girls face as Despair consumed her heart.

She had her goal now, and luckily for her she had a sister that would be more then happy to help. And once the Despair touched Makoto he would be all hers.

* * *

 _ **Well that got dark near the end didn't it?**_

 _ **But joking aside thanks to all my readers who have patiently waited for another chapter. I intend for this fic to be done by the end of the year, maybe a bit before depending on how life works out.**_

 _ **Please favorite if you enjoy the story, follow for more, and review to let me known your thoughts and feelings. Every review means the world to me**_.


	7. Zetsubō

It was rare to see Kyoko with anything but a blank expression and a well put together dress, and yet there she was muttering to herself while pacing in her classmates room. Beyond just being a rare occurrence it was utterly unheard of. Of course her classmates knew that despite all outward appearances there was an actual person under the pile of detective cliches, but there was one person who could draw those out of her. It seemed only appropriate that said boy would be the cause of her current mood as well.

"Um Kyoko are you listening?" the small voice of Chihiro Fujisaki asked from his computer chair, eyes tracking as the Ultimate Detective made her way from one wall of the room to the other.

"It just doesn't make any sense." she spoke aloud, unable to keep her thoughts to herself at this point. If Mak-Naegi had found been secretly dating a girl she would have known it. Or she thought that she would have known it. After all the two of them were close friends...if she had ever allowed herself to think about the subject she would be forced to confess that he was probably the best friend she had ever had. If he was dating a girl she would have known.

A small part of her said 'it would have been me' but she buried that voice so deep that it might as well have been calling from the bottom of a mineshaft.

"Well you aren't wrong," the master programmer turned in his chair and looked at his computer screen, showing a number of flashing 'Access Denied' windows opened on the laptop he had placed on his desk. Ever since Kyoko had added him to her investigation he had been pushing deep into Hopes Peak's hidden files, having found one that was buried under what appeared to be dead code, but was actually a complicated wall meant to keep even the most dedicated of hackers away. But he wasn't an ultimate for nothing, and his digging had unveiled a file kept behind an equally complicated lock.

"This file has already burned through four computers. I've seen military files that weren't half as encrypted as this…" the young man paused for a moment and slapped a hand over his mouth. "I um...didn't say that."

Right the investigation, the very reason she has happened to see her best friend and his girlfriend who was a girl…

With a shake of her head Kyoko cast aside those thought to focus on the mystery hidden behind Hajime Hinata, the boy whose very existence had been utterly erased from the world. What made a student from the non talent portion of the academy so important that anyone would go so far? "So we still know nothing about what might actually be in the files I brought you?"

"Well I wouldn't go that far," with a few strokes of the keyboard Chihiro closed the various screens and brought up a single document, a header that held the words 'Project Hope'. "I can't break the full file open but I managed to pull a bit of it out using a program I developed. I was banking on the file holding a fragment of the password needed to open it, but all I could get was the first page of a text document."

Kyoko's interest peaked at the document title and stepped closer to examine it, eyes glancing toward what appeared to be a small black line at the bottom of the document just before above where a normal text document would end. "Whats that at the bottom?"

The programmer blinked and rubbed the screen of his laptop before hitting the zoom button as far down as his program would let him, revealing the line was actually a small series of what appeared to be scribbles, but we're close enough together to appear on anything but the closest of inspection to be just an error with the document. "Huh, maybe it's some sort of code." he turned to Kyoko and saw the girl's stone faced expression. "That's more your area. Want me to send this to you?"

Kyoko gave a nod and let out a small sigh. "Keep trying at the file, I don't want to stop chasing this lead until I know for a fact that it won't bear fruit."

Chihiro gave a small nod and watched as Kyoko turned around. "Um...forgive me if I'm prying but is something wrong?" the detective visibly cringed for a moment but didn't turn around to say anything. "It's just if you are having trouble you know you can talk to me right?" despite being more then a bit socially awkward Makoto had taught the young man to try and be more assertive with his feelings. Seeing his classmate looking so conflicted was enough for him to break out of his shell, if only a bit.

"Its nothing," the response was curt and before anything else could be said Kyoko was out the door and trying to hold herself together. It was plainly obvious that she had no idea what she was doing, and the longer these thoughts plagued her the harder it was going to be to focus on the case.

But to say that Kyoko was clueless when it came to her own emotions would be a drastic understatement. Not to mention how muddy her own thoughts became once they wandered to Makoto and his...friend. She was going to need advice from someone more knowledgeable about these subjects.

Obviously her male classmates weren't people whom she could talk to about this situation. Even if they were willing to help most had their own issues that would simply make talking about the situation unpleasant in its own unique way. Yet even among the girls she didn't know who to turn to for help in these matters.

But she couldn't allow the situation to get worse, so she picked the girl from her class who would have the most experience when it came to Makoto.

* * *

Junko woke up and found herself chained and blindfolded to a bed that felt different from the comfortable mattress that she ever so rarely used. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind at once, trying to figure out just how this had happened. Her first thought turned to stalkers, some lifeless shut in who spent their days rubbing themselves out to her photoshoots had managed to grab her and take her to some underground sex chamber from which she would be forced to endure all sorts of improper things.

One twist of her body proved that theory wrong, the chains that were holding her had been wrapped around her perfectly, just tight enough that she would be unable to move but without cutting off her circulation. The odds that a freak who chained people in their basements had gone through the trouble to hold her down but still ensure her comfort seemed a bit too ridiculous.

The sound of a door opening banished all thoughts of a fan as she recognized it as being one of the many she had installed in her underground facility. She refused to call it a lair on the grounds that losers and comic book villains had lairs, professionals have facilities. There were only four people in the entire world that knew about this location, one of whom hadn't been able to leave, one of whom would have literally zero interest in holding her prison, herself, and finally…

"So sis are we gonna like, talk about why I'm all pinned down like the start of a bad porno flick?"

There was no noise for her to pick up on for a moment, and then suddenly she could hear a chair being moved across the floor before a small movement let her know that the chair was touching the edge of the bed. It sometimes disturbed Junko just how silent her sister could be, a skill born from her talent that even she couldn't fully replicate.

"I need your help Junko," her sisters voice boomed like thunder in her ears after having heard nothing but silence since she had woken up.

Despite her situation Junko felt a sneer dance across her lips. "And you couldn't fucking ask like a normal ass human could you cow?" if she had free use of her arms she would have smacked her sister in the head.

There was silence from Mukuro was deafening before a soft sigh escaped her lips. "You wouldn't be willing to help me if you knew what I really wanted."

That seemed to get Junko's attention as her brain flipped through all of the possible things that her sister might want that were out of her reach before arriving at the obvious conclusion. "Oh...you are all hot and bothered about that scrawny little luck nerd aren't you?"

Despite not being able to see it Junko knew that her sister was no doubt sporting a blush that probably looked utterly unnatural on her hardened face.

"Well you aren't wrong, there is no way I would ever try and set you up with that hopeful piece of trash. Now untie me so we can get back to work." Junko's voice offered no room for argument and she waited expectantly for release.

Instead all that was offered was the scrapping of a chair and the closing of a door, leaving her in silence once more.

* * *

Sayaka Maizono had a tendency to disappear into her work for days on end, dipping into her room and simply losing herself in writing songs, practicing singing, or designing concepts for outfits for the next concert. Normally such things were handled by a group of people, but as an Ultimate she had a certain reputation to uphold and liked getting her hands dirty in her own work. She knew that eventually someone would get her when it was apparent she was so busy that she hadn't actually eaten in a day or more. Usually it was a certain boy that she liked having treat her to a meal.

A sudden knock on the door jolted her out of songwriting mode as she realized just how sore she was from laying on the floor and just how many scattered papers lay around her body. In any normal setting she would have never answered the door, but the last paparazzi that had tried to step foot on Hope's Peak outside of a scheduled meeting had been ejected. Violently.

The Ultimate Idol felt her lips twitch into a soft smile and walked toward the door, already having a feeling of who was on the other side. Makoto was always the first to be at her door with a bento or offer to grab some food if she ended up locking herself away, and already he could imagine a blush across his cheeks at seeing her looking disheveled as she was.

With a flourish she pulled the door open and smiled. "Hello Ma-" she froze as the figure on the other side of the door was revealed, not her childhood best friend but another classmate. "Kirigiri?"

The Ultimate Detective stood outside the threshold of the room with an unusual expression on her face, which givin her nature was the existence of any sort of expression at all. Her usual mask of disinterest had been replaced with a frown small enough for most to miss, and her eyes held a certain uncertainties to them. "May I come in?" her words still held their usual bluntness but with a soft undercurrent of something else.

Sayaka stood still for a moment, hands still on the door as an internal debate ran through her mind. While she didn't hold any direct animosity to Kyoko she also couldn't say that she particularly liked the other girl. She was often to serious and was difficult to talk to without feeling like she was trying to dissect you with her eyes. And of course there was another reason involving a certain boy, but that felt too petty a reason to simply send her off.

"Is something wrong?" the words came out a bit unsure from the Ultimate Idol, something was obviously rubbing Kyoko the wrong way, and if it was something dangerous Sayaka wanted to be far away from it.

Kyoko seemed unsure how to respond to that for a moment before simply deciding on honesty. "It's a matter of...personal importance."

"Oh," that was unexpected to say the least, normally Kyoko seemed well put together to the point where nothing could phase her. The fact she was hearing asking for advice on a personal matter was beyond the pale. "Come in, careful of the papers that aren't crumpled up."

With a nod Kyoko entered the room, carefully avoiding the paper on the ground as if they were mines on a battlefield. She stood awkwardly in one of the few pieces of floor not occupied as Sayaka went about picking up a bit of the mess in order to give them room to talk.

While Sayaka was occupied Kyoko took a moment to examine the room with a passing glance, which for someone with her skills was akin to memorizing even the little details. A few things instantly struck her as odd.

The room was rather bare, very few personal effects graced either the walls or her desk, and even the sheets were rather plain despite their high quality. While not able to go all out in changing their rooms Hope's Peak at least allowed for some modifications and personal pieces to bring life to the place. But the most she could see were a few pictures of Sayaka with three other women, a class photo from middle school, and a picture of her and Makoto making silly faces toward a camera.

Even in her own room she had a bookshelf and a few paintings hung up, but the threadbare nature of the room spoke to an aspect of Sayaka's personality that Kyoko hadn't known existed but in hindsight seemed perfectly clear. And idol spent weeks touring at a time during the busy periods of the year, so putting a lot of small bits here and there would probably be to much hassal for someone who wouldn't see much of them. So rather than lived in the room gave off a sensation of being more like a hotel room.

Sayaka finished placing her papers on a small desk next to her bed and took a seat on the bed itself before waving vaguely toward the chair for Kyoko. "So what was it you wanted to talk about Kirigiri?"

For a moment the Ultimate Detective seemed to fumble for a way to introduce the topic that had been weighing on her heart. "Its a personal matter…"

A smile graced Sayaka's lips, more real then the half hearted thing she had given before. "Don't worry I wouldn't spread around your secrets. Gossip is an ugly thing after all."

"Thank you," Kyoko closed her eyes for a moment before finally speaking. "I believe that I may have feelings for Naegi."

Sayaka felt as if a spear of ice had been thrust into her chest at those words, but tried to maintain a smile regardless. "Oh, that is...nice…" she rested her hands on her lap and took a calming breath. "But I don't see why that would be a problem."

Kyoko would of course beg to differ, as the processing of such mundane emotions had never been something she had been particularly skilled with. It was true that she could pick up minute details about others and was not wholly unaware of such feelings, but her ability to understand such things were limited. "I believe that Naegi has a significant other, and my feelings are...conflicted."

Yet another cold shock rendered Sayaka's heart as her hands balled into fists in her lap, her own nails biting into her flesh as she tried to quell the storm that was already raging in her heart. "Oh." was all that she could let out without revealing how conflicted she was.

It took a few moments in order to compose herself enough to speak, but eventually she was able to reply. "I can understand how that would be effecting, but I why would you come to me for advice on something like that?"

"You seemed like the obvious choice, after all as someone who is adored by so many people I felt that you more so than any of our other classmates would have more experience with matters of the heart." Kyoko's answer was rather blunt but seemed to hold water from her own perspective.

Sayaka simply looked blankly at the girl for a moment before a sudden laugh escaped her. Not the dainty laugh that she practiced for fans and interviews but something a bit more honest, and also a tad more dark then most would hear. Once the first escaped she couldn't help as more and more laughter rocked her body, sending her back on the bed as a mixture of emotions left her with no other ability to react.

Kyoko for her part didn't quite know how to react to the sudden display, simply looking a tad shocked at the activity and wondering what she had said to trigger such a reaction.

Finally Sayaka ran out of breath and simply laid back as she tried to fill her lungs again. "Sorry that was a bit rude wasn't it?" the question was rhetorical but she didn't really feel the need to apologize to the other girl. "Kirigi how much do you know about idol industry?"

Kyoko racked her brain for a moment before giving a shake of her head. "Very little, none of my cases have ever involved the genre and I prefer classical music."

Sayaka pulled herself back into a sitting position and wore a small smile on her face. "I see, that would explain that," the young woman drew in a deep breath and her smile slipped into a rather serious expression. "I'm sorry about my earlier display, but honestly it seemed like a bad joke at my expense. For an idol having a relationship is impossible."

"What do you mean by that?" Kyoko's interest was piqued at the new subject, and regardless of situation she wasn't one to miss out on the chance to learn. And beyond that by her expression and tone of voice this was something that needed to be vented. Let it not be said that she hadn't learned a bit about how to interact with people from Makoto.

Sayaka closed her eyes. "As an idol your fans are your very life, fans spend money to come to shows, buy merchandise, and keep the idol industry alive. The more dedicated the fan the more people they will inevitably draw in due to their dedication." she sighed and looked at Kyoko. "But then you run into an issue, because the more they give for you the more they expect from you. In essence I have to match the devotions of my fans."

"But fans don't see idol's as people, but rather beings that exist in order to comfort them with our words. Each song is sung for them even amongst a crowd. My love is for them, and if it was ever discovered that I was in a relationship…"

Understanding washing over Kyoko as those words came together. "They would feel betrayed, and you would lose those dedicated fans."

"Idol's have been unmade overnight by rumors of relationships, even as the Ultimate Idol my career probably wouldn't survive me having a boyfriend, even if there was someone…" she closed her eyes. "Even if there **is** someone like that."

Kyoko blinked as cold feeling washed over her, the kind that came to her when a hint was rearing its head during an investigation. "There is?"

Sayaka laughed, but there was nothing behind it, more a half hearted gesture then anything real. "It might be a bit petty of me, but I don't really like you Kyoko. But at the same time we are similar in a few areas, like our taste in utterly clueless guys who are too cheerful and helpful."

She couldn't help but smile at her description of Makoto, even in this situation just having him brought up could help. "When did you...know? I mean that you had feelings for him."

A soft laugh escaped Sayaka's lips as she thought of her old friend. "Well I've always been fond of him, ever since I saw him in middle school he seemed kind, but once I got to know him during our first year at Hope's Peak…" she giggled softly. "Getting to spend time with him, having him help me. I guess there wasn't just one moment, one moment he is just someone you know and then its like you are missing an arm when he isn't around."

Kyoko couldn't help but agree with that assessment, ever since he had started helping her on cases he had proved to be an invaluable assistant. He had an eye for details that she would gloss over, and often it was only when the two talked that she was able to make her greatest strides forward where she might have been stuck for days unassisted. "I can't say you are wrong on that count."

"But if you want a single moment, it was after my first band mates split from me. It was a pretty public thing and they were trying to raise their own prestige by striking out on their own, they spread some bad rumors but ended up sinking their own careers in the process. I was so sad I felt like I would never leave my room again. And then he came." her hands went to her heart.

"He had brought over a bento and some junk food he had managed to sneak in and we stayed up the entire night talking and listening to music. There was this moment when I had gotten something on the corner of my mouth and he was cleaning it off and more then anything I just wanted to lean forward and kiss him." a blush tinted her cheeks at that memory.

"Did you?" Kyoko asked in a quiet voice.

Sayaka shook her head. "No, I knew that if I did that it would end up hurting him. Makoto has a lot of good qualities but keeping secrets was something I don't think he will ever be good at. I could either have the love of my fans or him. I had already given up so much for my career, even if it hurt me I didn't want to lose the chance to bring a smile to those who depend on me."

"I'm sorry," the words held sympathy, and there was simply nothing else that Kyoko could say to the other girl. "I ended up dragging a lot of painful things out with my question. If you want me to leave I will."

Sayaka shook her head and brought her sleeve to her eyes to brush aside her tears before they could fall. "No it's okay. I'm a big girl and made my own choice so that's on me. You still deserve help."

Kyoko reached out her hand and placed it on Sayaka's, offering a small smile and a nod. "Thank you."

The idol nodded and thought for a moment. "So Naegi is with someone, that probably means that she ended up making the first move. For being so thoughtful he is actually pretty dense isn't he?"

Kyoko brought a hand over her mouth in order to mask a small laugh and simply gave a nod of agreement. "It's not an inaccurate view of his character."

"Regardless there are three things you could do, or well that I can think of," Sayaka raised a finger. "One, if you think the two aren't right for each other then you can stake your own claim and fight for his heart. Two, if they are really happy together you just need to be happy for him. It's...not an easy thing to do." she glanced at Kyoko for a moment and giggled. "I thought that was what I was doing when you two started to hang around together. Guess I wasn't exactly right was I?" she put up her hand and sighed. "Sorry that was mean. The third thing you can do...well regardless of anything you can fight for him. If you think you can make him happy then don't give up."

"That last option seems...ill advised." Kyoko could already see the potential pain that it could cause between the two of them if she tried some scheme against the two.

Sayaka simply gave a shrug. "I didn't say it was a good option, just an option." she rested her head back and looked up at the ceiling. "Whatever you do Naegi will still be your friend, and even if that hurts you shouldn't distance yourself from him. That would hurt even worse."

"I will keep that in mind," Kyoko rose and offered her hand to Sayaka. "Thank you, for listening to me that is."

Sayaka took her hand and shook it. "This doesn't mean that I like you. And if Makoto slips from this other girls fingers I might not just let you get him so easily."

The challenge brought a small smile to her lips. "Hm, I suppose that might make us rivals."

"May the best girl win." she gave a playful wink and Kyoko left the room. "Oh Makoto...you really are too much." Sayaka collapsed back on the bed and closed her eyes, humming a tune that had come to mind.

An idea had come for her next single, something to do with grabbing onto the love in front of you before it disappeared. Yeah, something like that seemed perfect in its own way.

* * *

The next time that Junko heard a noise it was the beating of boots against the ground outside of her improvised prison, followed by the door opening and the sounds of people entering the room. "Man sounds like a party." she said aloud, tilting her head toward the sound.

"Hm, so this is your sister. I somehow imagined something, more." a masculine sounding voice rang throughout the room and suddenly she felt hands at either side of her head as her blindfold was removed. The first thing she saw was her sisters face looking down at her with an unreadable expression, straightening back up to reveal two other figures.

One was dressed head to toe in combat gear, with even a mask covering their face. The other was an older looking man with the body of a linebacker and the expression of someone who would end your life for looking at them the wrong way. His outfit was business like, but the scar and milky white of one of his eyes gave the appearance of a battle hardened soldier.

"I wouldn't discount her sir, if what the little wolf said is true we might be looking down at one of the most devious minds since Genghis Khan." the voice that came from the fully covered one seemed lighter, a bit girlish almost.

"What little old me?" Junko's entire body language changed in the blink of an eye, showing herself as utterly defenseless to those around her where before she had been taunt and ready to strike. It was as if the girl had put on a totally different personality. "I wouldn't hurt a fly, its my sister who is the violent one."

"Hm, you are good," the gruff man looked her over and shook his head. "Your sister seems to believe that you could be of use on the mission that she has contacted us for. Are you willing to offer aid?"

Junko's mannerisms changed once more, becoming thoughtful for a moment before spitting directly into the man's one good eye.

The man related back and let out a few curses in a foreign language that Junko didn't recognize. The masked figure laughed a bit as Mukuro simply looked at her sister with a blank expression on her face.

"Dream on, the only one who gives orders around here is me!" Junko smiled in the same way one would imagine a shark would smile as it came across its prey.

"Unfortunate." was all the older man said once he had calmed down.

Mukuro walked up to her sister and sighed. "Junko, before when I was helping you I didn't really understand what it was you wanted. Despair meant nothing to me, I only sought to help you. But I think I understand now, how you feel," she put a hand over her heart and something happened that Junko couldn't believe.

Her sister smiled.

It wasn't an ordinary smile, no but all rights the smile on her face was one that she had only seen in a mirror before. Mukuro's hands wrapped around her body as the smile seemed to reach the limit that her face could convey. "When I saw Naegi and that girl kissing it felt like I was being stabbed, shot, and set on fire. It hurt so badly that it felt like someone had replaced my blood with broken glass." her eyes gleamed over with a sort of insanity that Junko knew were reflections of her own.

"You...felt Despair." Junko's lips twitched into a full smile. "Hm, that shitty anime nerd, his little program, even if I couldn't exactly replicate it your mind was open to further emotional changes. Seeing those two...oh that is too good!" a dark laugh flew from her. "How does it feel sis, the Despair that I know so well?"

"It's good," Mukuro purred, her voice shifting into something else, becoming closer to Junko's. "It hurts so much that it's all I can think of. Like white noise blaring in your ears."

"Like a glass shard being stabbed into the heart!" both sisters sang at once.

"So what are you going to do sis?" Junko asked, hungry for details.

Murkuro smiled. "I will drive him into despair, I will break him down until he is forced to love me more than anyone else in the world."

All at once Junko's smile disappeared. "That's it?'

For a moment Mukuro's smiled faltered. "What do you mean?"

"You finally get Despair and you just want to share it with one person?" Junko's eyes became manic for a moment. "No no no no you have to make the entire world understand."

"Oh Junko," her sister shook her head for a moment. "I wish that you could understand. I don't care about the world, I only have room in my heart for so much."

"What are y-"

Before Junko could finish Mukuro pulled out a gun and fired a dart into Junko's neck.

"I only have room in my heart for one person. But don't worry," Mukuro smiled brightly and laughed. "Even when you are gone you won't be dead," she placed her forehead against her sisters. "I'm going to take everything. All of your plans, all of your methods, everything you have set up will become mine. And when I go about my plan it will be using everything I have learned from you that will make Makoto mine."

Junko felt her entire body warm, as if hot iron flooded her veins. Despite herself she went to shout but couldn't make noise.

"The poison will kick in soon, just close your eyes and feel Despair. Despair that you were killed by your sister, Despair that none of your plans will ever come to be. But most of all," Mukuro leaned down and gently ran her hand along her sisters cheek. "Despair because all you are will become me." she ran her tongue along her lips and the final string of sanity in her mind snapped. "After all, we were like, planning to trade out anyway. So I'm gonna be the new Junko."

The last thing that the would be Ultimate Despair saw was her own face painted across her sisters. And she felt...wonderful.

Once Junko's eyes were closed Mukuro turned toward the other two occupants and smirked. "In order to hire Fenrir one must not only pay for the services but also be willing to give up that which they care most about in the world. Isn't that right?"

The old man nodded his head. "Of course, the last of our agents will be arriving within the week. As of now we are under contract."

"Good," Mukuro smiled and walked toward the door. "Now then, I have a meeting to attend to."

"With the Ultimate Hope."

* * *

Makoto looked up as the first drop of a storm fell directly into his eye, drawing a sharp hiss from him as he attempted to blink it out. That momentary distraction had cost him the game that he had been close to winning. Or at least as close as he ever got to victory when playing against Chiaki.

"Are you okay?" the Ultimate Gamer looked up from her screen in concern as her boyfriend rubbed at his eyes.

"Yeah I'll be fine, looks like the weather kind of snuck up on us didn't it?" Makoto looked toward the sky, surprised to see what he had thought was supposed to be a clear day had become rather dreary. Apparently they had been at their game for longer than either had realized. It was a day off which meant they were afforded a bit more time to spend together but neither felt exactly confident enough to be in either of their dorms with the other.

While their relationship wasn't a secret neither had exactly gone about yelling about it from the rooftops. Their friends were important to them, that much couldn't be denied, but neither of them were quite ready to share their time together with others.

"I guess so, didn't it?" Chiaki looked up with a frown. The last thing she wanted was to have to leave Makoto just because of the weather, but at the same time she didn't want to risk their gaming systems out of sheer stubbornness. "It is getting pretty late, it might be a good idea to head back in."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Makoto sat the system on his lap and placed his hand on top of Chiaki's. "Are we still good for dinner next weekend, Togami promised that this place had much better fire suppression systems."

The two laughed at their little injoke and Chiaki gave a nod. "Yes, through I am a bit nervous. I've never really been on a...date…" she began to fidget, thinking of the various dating sims and the disastrous ends that she found herself in. Dates had always been the places she messed up the most.

"Neither have I, so worst comes to worst neither of us will know if we screwed up."

Chiaki couldn't help but smile at his hopeful attitude toward the entire thing. Just being around him made it a bit harder to worry about things. "You're right, I think."

The rain began to patter down on the two, but neither wanted to be the first to get up. Finally they both rose together and Makoto dipped down and gave Chiaki a small kiss on the cheek. While both had kissed each other already both kisses had come off at highly emotional times. That and neither had any real measure of how much physical affection was supposed to be shown at one time. So mostly it was played by ear.

As Chiaki turned to go she felt Makoto's hand suddenly take hers, and when she looked back she saw her boyfriend blushing slightly. "Before we go there is um...something I want to say. But it's a little embarrassing so you don't have to say anything back."

She gave a small nod, feeling her heart tighten a bit in anticipation.

"I...love you Chiaki." the blush on his face was only equal to the one that darted across her own. "I know we haven't been together for long but...I do."

Despite the rain Chiaki brought herself closer to Makoto and placed her forehead against his chest. His arms wrapped around her in a gentle hug and suddenly the rain seemed the furthest thing from either of their minds.

"I…" she didn't exactly know how to respond. After all the girl had never had another relationship like the one she had with Makoto. Even her parents weren't entirely accurate as a measuring stick for when affection became love. But then her mind came to where it normally went as a measuring stick, her games. She remembered the first time she had ever been truly wrapped up in a game, the feelings it had summoned in her to master it.

With that comparision in mind she smiled and pushed herself up on her toes, placing a soft kiss on Makoto's lips. "I...love you to. I think." she smiled broadly and finally stepped away from the embrace. "See you tomorrow?"

Makoto could only nod in response as she turned to walk toward her own dorm, throwing his arm into the air and letting out a sound of utter happiness.

* * *

Chihiro had fallen asleep at his computer when the sound of a notification suddenly forced him awake. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and the brightness of his screen he saw that another file had been extracted, this time an entire folder full of text documents.

"I'm in," the young man smiled to himself at the cliche and extracted the folder through his own means, reading the title out loud. "Okay then, Project: Ultimate Hope. Lets see what is so special about you."

* * *

In a dark room not unlike a cell Izuru watched as the door opened to reveal Mukuro flanked by two masked individuals. The girl was wearing a smile so utterly twisted it seemed to have no place on the serious girl he had known before.

Deep in his heart he felt a sudden stirring and stood up. "Hm...interesting."

* * *

 **No excuses, just content. If you enjoyed the chapter make sure to leave a review. Until next time.**


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